Highly Bendable AMC-Based Antenna for Wearable Applications

A highly bendable, and a low-profile Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC)-based antenna for wearable applications operating at 2.4 GHz is presented. The AMC is employed to ensure consistent antenna performance in both free space and on the body, with its safety limit complying with standards. The proposed AMC design incorporates a Jerusalem cross shape slot on its conventional patch, integrated with the antenna, resulting in overall dimensions of 60× 60 × 3 mm3. The proposed low-profile AMC demonstrates superior performance under extreme bending, whether in free space or on the body, and offers a wide bandwidth, addressing the frequency detuning problem associated with deformation. In free space, the integrated design exhibited a gain of 7.61 dBi, a bandwidth of 27.13%, a front-to-back ratio (FBR) of 17.7 dBi, and an efficiency of 83.5%. When placed on the body, it resulted in a gain of 6.98 dBi, a bandwidth of 25.7%, an FBR of 18.2 dBi, and an efficiency of 70.1%. SAR analysis was conducted with different input power levels (100 mW, 500 mW, and 1000 mW) and demonstrated excellent results. The numerical and experimental results collectively suggest that the integrated design is a promising candidate for wearable applications.