Design of UWB MIMO antenna using lean wearable textile substrate for reduced SAR

• Published in: Microelectronics international 2024-05, Vol.41 (3), p.142-148
• Main Authors: Perumalsamy, Sasireka, G., Kavya, S., Rajkumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antenna design; Antennas; Bandwidths; Cloth; Decoupling; Design; Fractals; Impedance matching; MIMO communication; Mutual coupling; Radiation; Software; Substrates; Textiles; Ultrawideband; Wearable technology; Wireless communications
• ISSN: 1356-5362; 1356-5362; 1758-812X
• DOI: 10.1108/MI-08-2023-0176

Purpose This paper aims to propose a two-element dual fed ultra-wideband (UWB) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna system with no additional decoupling structures. The antenna operates from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. The antenna finds its usage in on-body wearable device applications. Design/methodology/approach The antenna system measures 63.80 × 29.80 × 0.7 mm. The antenna radiating element is designed by using a modified dumbbell-shaped structure. Jean cloth material is used as substrate. The isolation improvement is achieved through spacing between two elements. Findings The proposed antenna has a very low mutual coupling of S21 < −20 dB and impedance matching of S11 < −10 dB. The radiation characteristics are stable in the antenna operating region. It provides as ECC < 0.01, diversity gain >9.9 dB. The antenna offers low average specific absorption rate (SAR) of 0.169 W/kg. The simulated and measured results are found to be in reasonable match. Originality/value The MIMO antenna is proposed for on-body communication, hence, a very thin jean cloth material is used as substrate. This negates the necessity of additional material usage in antenna design and the result range indicates good diversity performance and with a low SAR of 0.169 W/kg for on-body performance. This makes it a suitable candidate for textile antenna application.