A DODECAGON SLOTTED CIRCULAR TWO-ELEMENT SUB-6 GHZ FLEXIBLE ANTENNA FOR WEARABLE APPLICATIONS USING MODAL ANALYSIS

The sub-6 GHz 5G band has opened doors for a seamless and high-data-rate communication system connecting multiple devices. Multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) antennas are the backbone of such reliable communication systems with enhanced channel capacity. In this paper, a flexible two-element antenna is proposed for wearable applications. The dodecagon-slotted modified circular patch antenna with a defective ground structure gives isolation of 18 dB over the bandwidth. The antenna exhibits a gain of 3.38 dBi at the operating frequency of 4.8 GHz. A characteristic mode analysis was performed to investigate the resonance behavior of the antenna. Furthermore, specific absorption rate analysis was performed and found to be 0.790/0.314 W/kg for 1/10 g of tissue at 4.8 GHz. The MIMO diversity metrics exhibited an envelope correlation coefficient < 0.001, total active reflection coefficient < −10 dB, diversity gain ≈ 10, mean effective gain < −3 dB, channel capacity loss < 0.40 bps/Hz, and multiplexing efficiency < 0 over the operating frequency band.