A compact H-shaped dual-band and dual-polarized wearable antenna design for ON and OFF body-centric communications

The presented work demonstrates a wearable dual-band antenna prototype with dual polarization characteristics for wearable biomedical devices. The fabricated structure is operated in ISM bands, from 2.4 to 2.488 GHz and 5.725 to 5.825 GHz. An Innovative H-shaped Defected Ground Structure (IHS-DGS) at the rear side of the antenna is implemented for generating circular polarization characteristics in upper ISM band. The antenna radiates/receives an electric field in an omnidirectional manner with linear polarization (LP) ranging range from 2.338–2.614 GHz and circular polarization ranging from 5.66–6.03 GHz. The design is printed on FR-4 material with an overall footprint of 40 × 33 × 1.6 mm³. The designed antenna performance is examined in air and on a human arm. The fabricated antenna results have been compared with simulated results to validate the antenna performance. The SAR distribution is investigated for human body arm to justify the safety rules. On the basis of the presented results, this study claims that designed antenna has desirable merits for medical wearable applications.