Skin-Mimicking Phantom for Near-Body Antenna Characterization

This work investigates the ability of a flexible solid phantom to replicate the electromagnetic (EM) behavior of human skin under near-field conditions. As an example of a realistic scenario, we considered a patch antenna operating at 60 GHz positioned in the proximity of the phantom and a skin model at varying distances. The performance of the antenna is evaluated in the two cases, comparing scattering parameters, efficiencies, and radiation characteristics. While larger discrepancies are observed in the reactive near-field zone, the phantom shows good agreement at mid-range distances (mean error below 1 dB) and proves to be suitable for evaluating wearable antennas in closeproximity scenarios.