On the performance investigation of a low profile UWB antenna backed with conjointly connected sickle shaped AMC structure for on-/off body communications

Abstract Enormous growth in wireless communication has led its applicability in various scenarios. One among them is the wireless based on-/off body communication. Achieving this requires compact and efficient antennas for wireless data transfer. To meet this requirement, a low profile Ultra Wideband (UWB) antenna is reported in this work. The antenna’s dimension is 35 × 45 × 0.8 mm 3 which is designed using a semi flexible Rogers 5,880 substrate. Using partial ground and asymmetric feed techniques, an ultra-wide bandwidth of 10 GHz (3–13 GHz) is achieved with a good peak gain of 6.7 dB, while the efficiency ranging from 80 % to 92 % in the UWB spectrum. A novel approach of conjointly connecting the Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) structures is followed to achieve desired reflection response. AMC structures are deployed to achieve directional radiation pattern at 5.8 GHz to support off body communication, while concentric ring slots and partial ground plane enable Omni-directional pattern at 2.45 GHz which supports on body communication. On body measurements on various body parts and real time measurements under wet conditions are carried out. 0.654 and 0.327 W/kg of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz respectively, confirms minimum radiation hazards. The path loss of the antenna was analyzed for free space, on body and off body scenarios and were found to be considerably minimum. Similar scenarios were used to analyze group delay and minimum variation in group delay (<1.5 ns) is witnessed. The pulse similarity has been analyzed using fidelity factor and the values obtained satisfy the required standard values. The obtained results are predominant compared to the ones in the literature with good compatibility between simulated and measured results.