Compact UWB Wearable Antenna

Abstract

This paper reports a novel UWB antenna suitable for wireless on body applications. The antenna is based on previous studies of wearable button antennas and uses the circular metal nail employed in some buttons to create the radiating element of the antenna. The visible part of the antenna was fabricated using PTFE, although other dielectric or plastic material could be used. The novel antenna is intended for textile jackets where the button structure can be easily camouflaged and disregarded as a plastic button. The antenna is fed by a microstrip line and denim was used as the substrate as well as the superstrate that hides the feeding. The antenna achieves the 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz bandwidth required for the ultra-wide-band technology. The radiation patterns are those of a planar circular monopole antenna with no significant deleterious effect of the dielectric structure on the far-field patterns.