Flexible and Wearable Graphene-based Terahertz Antenna for Body-Centric Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a graphene-based wearable antenna operating in the terahertz frequency range. Graphene with its highly attractive electronic properties, and modern manufacturing techniques can yield antennas that are not only flexible but efficient and low-profile, suited for terahertz applications. The graphene antenna investigated here has a resonant frequency of 0.647 THz. The performance of the antenna is evaluated on-body and in free space using three layers of human skin. Simulated results show that the proposed antenna has a bandwidth of 20 GHz and offers a radiation efficiency of 96% in free space and 50% on the body, with respective gains of 7.8 dB and 7 dB. The small and flexible structure of the antenna along with excellent impedance matching, high bandwidth, and gain, and good efficiency makes it an appropriate candidate to shortrange wireless communication in the vicinity of the human body.