A Miniature Wideband Antenna for Wearable Systems

This paper presents a miniature wideband antenna with a CPW feed fabricated on a Rogers RO 3210 substrate for operation in the top half of the UWB band for utilization in wearable systems, in particular a UWB pulse based time-of-flight motion tracking system. This miniature antenna makes use of a compact SMP connector instead of the traditional SMA coaxial connector. Use of SMP connector further helps in reducing the overall size of the antenna which is 7.9mm x 16.38mm in physical dimensions including the antenna feed. The antenna is small enough that it can fit on a fingertip. Because of its compact size and reasonable performance in the vicinity of human body, the antenna can be used for wearable applications and portable devices. This antenna has been demonstrated to have an impedance bandwidth of 4.9 GHz to beyond 11 GHz. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulations.