UWB All-Textile Antenna With Full Ground Plane for Off-Body WBAN Communications

Abstract

A fully textile microstrip topology with Ultra Wideband (UWB) characteristics useful in Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) is proposed. The antenna is operable within the full UWB band and incorporates a full textile shielding ground plane. The full ground plane is shown to be crucial in maintaining the performance when worn on-body. It successfully reduces any on-body performance degradation, resulting in a very robust structure. A detailed numerical and experimental evaluation of the antenna is performed in free space and on body.