High-Contrast Low-Loss Antennas with Improved Bandwidth and Wearability

We recently presented a new class of antennas for into-body radiation with unprecedented performance, namely, High-Contrast Low-Loss Antennas (HCLAs). The HCLAs, however, were limited by their size and bandwidth capabilities. Into-body antennas should be conformal to the body for wearable applications. Additionally, lower frequencies should be targeted due to their larger penetration depths into the tissues. To overcome these challenges, we herewith propose to (a) reduce the height, and (b) improve the low frequency cutoff, without compromising antenna performance. Simulations and measurements verify that the antenna height can be reduced from 12.1 mm to 7.5 mm and the low frequency cutoff (│S<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</inf>│ < -10 dB) can be improved from 1.38 GHz to 730 MHz without additional volume. These improvements allow for better implementation of the HCLA in diverse telemetry, imaging, and sensing applications.