Performance Study of a UWB Antenna in Proximity to a Human Arm

Abstract

This letter studies the frequency- and time-domain performance of a recently developed printed coplanar-fed ultrawideband (UWB) monopole antenna aiming at predicting its behavior close to a human arm. The input reflection coefficient (| <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sub> |) and fidelity factor of the antenna were evaluated in free space and close to an arm. Simulations using three simplified arm models with different cross sections (flat, rectangular, and elliptical) were compared to measurements. All models include the relevant human tissue layers: skin, fat, muscle, and bone. It was found that an accurate model requires the inclusion of the tissues broadband dispersion characterization. Moreover, the skin layer has a major impact in | <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sub> |, and a small effect on fidelity, while the models can be simplified by discarding the bone. Furthermore, the geometry of the models is less relevant than dispersion characterization. It has also been observed that using the simplified models with proper broadband tissues dispersion yields good performance predictions, and that the fidelity factor increases as the antenna gets closer to the arm.