A Dual Band Adhesive Planar Antenna for Biomedical Applications

We present the design of a compact dual-band adhesive planar antenna which operates as a gateway for biomedical applications. Operating in the ISM band (2.4 GHz – 2.5 GHz) and the IEEE 802.11 WLAN band (5.2 GHz to 5.3 GHz), the antenna is useful in the context of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) for body-signal monitoring. The ISM band is meant for in-body communication with the implanted medical devices; whereas the WLAN band is for off-body communication with the base station. The measurement result shows that the antenna has 10 dB impedance bandwidths of 1 GHz (1.64–2.64 GHz) and 800 MHz (5.16–5.96 GHz) to cover the ISM bands and IEEE 802.11 WLAN bands, respectively. The proposed antenna is printed on a flexible Duroid 5880 RT epoxy substrate and it occupies a compact volume of 18 mm × 18 mm × 1 mm. To the best of our knowledge, this size is the smallest among antennas which features a similar nature. The simulated and measured performance of the antenna confirms its omnidirectional radiation patterns and dual-band operation with high return losses.