Textile Antenna With Simultaneous Frequency and Polarization Reconfiguration for WBAN

Abstract

This paper proposes the design of a reconfigurable circularly polarized textile antenna. The circular polarization feature in the proposed antenna is generated by the edge truncation of a rectangular patch and the incorporation of a slotted ground plane, whilst the frequency reconfigurability feature is realized by slot size modification via the use of three embedded RF p-i-n diode switches. Consequently, the antenna operation can be switched between six frequencies (1.57, 1.67, 1.68, 2.43, 2.50, and 2.55 GHz) depending on the seven switch configurations. The proposed antenna is validated experimentally to be operable within the WBAN, WLAN, and GPS range in a compact and wearable format, with gains of up to 4.8 dBi.