International Journal of Design of a wearable MIMO antenna deployed

Microwave and Wireless

Technologies with an inverted U-shaped ground stub for
diversity performance enhancement
cambridge.org/mrf
Anupma Gupta1 , Ankush Kansal1 and Paras Chawla2
1
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Research Paper Patiala, Punjab, India and 2Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, University Institute of
Engineering, Chandigarh University, Chandigarh, India
Cite this article: Gupta A, Kansal A, Chawla P
(2020). Design of a wearable MIMO antenna Abstract
deployed with an inverted U-shaped ground
stub for diversity performance enhancement. A compact multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna operating at 2.45 GHz industrial
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless scientific and medical band is presented for wearable devices. Open-end slotting is used to mini-
Technologies 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/ aturize the antenna dimensions. Inverted U-shaped ground stub is incorporated to reduce
S1759078720000471
mutual coupling. On-body performance is analyzed on a three-layered equivalent tissue phan-
Received: 22 November 2019 tom model. The wide bandwidth of 300 MHz and port isolation of 30 dB are obtained from mea-
Revised: 7 April 2020 sured results. The antenna shows the efficiency of 40% and directivity of 4.56 dBi when placed at
Accepted: 8 April 2020 a gap of “s” = 4 mm from the body. Broadside radiation pattern and low specific absorption rate
Key words:
make the antenna suitable for on-body communication. Further, diversity performance is mea-
MIMO; open-end slotting; U-shaped ground sured in terms of envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), diversity gain (DG), and channel cap-
stub; wearable; broadside radiation acity loss (CCL). The value of ECC is 0.025, DG is 9.98 dB, and CCL is 0.12 bits/s/Hz at 2.45
GHz. Antenna robustness is examined by bending the structure at different radii along the
Author for correspondence:
Anupma Gupta, E-mail: anupmagupta31@
x-axis and y-axis. Performance of the proposed structure is reliable with structural deformation.
gmail.com

Introduction
In recent years, on-body health monitoring devices have attained great popularity. The
ongoing miniaturization of sensors has enabled the future healthcare module to integrate
into wearable devices. Wide range of applications has been incorporated with wearable devices
in the field of proactive health monitoring, training of military/sports person, personal secur-
ity, and personal computing. Physiological parameters, such as glucose level, blood pressure,
temperature, are continuously measured from the human body. Measured information is syn-
chronized with a PC or mobile phones for monitoring and storing [1]. Therefore, the antenna
is one of the most important parts of the healthcare modules for ensuring satisfactory power
transfer from on-body wearable device to off-body monitoring device.
Several design challenges arise while designing the on-body antenna. Near-field electromag-
netic radiations interact with multi-layered tissue structure (consisting of skin, fat, muscle, and
bone) and produce internal reflection and scattering. It interrupts with impedance matching and
degrades antenna performance [2]. To overcome this issue, various design techniques have been
used including cavity-backed surface-integrated waveguide [3, 4], meandered dipole with a
reflector ground [5], electromagnetic band gap structure [6], antenna with artificial magnetic
conductor [7], and multi-stacked patch [8]. These techniques provide good isolation between
the antenna and the human body but have larger and complex geometry which make them dif-
ficult to integrate with wearable devices. Higher mode circular patch antennas with shorting pins
[9], reconfigurable circular patch [10], and PIFA structure [11] have smaller dimensions; can be
considered as a good candidate for wearable devices; however, they have an undesired larger
height. Wide bandwidth is also the one major necessity to ensure stable performance when
the antenna is placed on different human being [12]. A significant shift in the resonating
band has been observed due to structural deformation in [13]. Maximum SAR limit also restricts
the radiated power of the antenna. Besides this, multipath fading occurs due to different body
postures and movements. Therefore, to enhance the quality of the signal transmission of wear-
able devices, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antennas are attaining much attention by
researchers. Very few literatures are available for wearable MIMO antenna structures. Dual-band
textile MIMO antenna [14], ultra-wide band (UWB) MIMO antenna with a decoupling struc-
ture [15], and neutralization line-based UWB MIMO antenna [16] for wearable device have
© Cambridge University Press and the been investigated but [14–16] are designed using textile materials, possess large footprints,
European Microwave Association 2020 and their performance is also affected due to wrinkling, crumpling, and environmental effects.
Ground radiation-based loop antenna with two inductive radiators [17], circular co-radiator
antenna with high impedance surface [18], and four-element octagonal ring-shaped MIMO
[19] are designed for wearable MIMO devices. Authors have used a rigid FR-4 substrate
which is not comfortable for the user to wear, and SAR is also not evaluated in [17]. Large

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 2 Anupma Gupta et al.

Fig. 1. Structure of single-element antenna with simulation setup and surface current distribution: (a) top view, (b) bottom view, (c) simulation setup, (d) surface
current.

separation gap between antenna elements is used by researchers to structure for enhancing the signal transmission quality. Inverted
enhance the port isolation which unnecessarily increases the overall U-shaped stub is deployed at the ground plane to improve port iso-
size of the MIMO structure. lation. Depending on the application of proposed antenna, stringent
In this paper, a compact, open-end slotted MIMO antenna approaches such as miniaturization, wide operating bandwidth, high
structure has been proposed for wearable devices operating at port isolation, high directivity, and low specific absorption rate are
2.45 GHz (industrial scientific and medical (ISM)) band. First accomplished by the proposed antenna structure.
antenna size is miniaturized so that it can be easily integrated
with compact on-body devices. After that, a wide bandwidth of
Antenna design procedure
300 MHz is achieved with the help of modified L-shaped ground
that makes the antenna robust to withstand frequency detuning. The antenna is designed on a thin semi-flexible substrate of
Finally, two antenna elements are used to design the MIMO Rogers 5880 (ϵr = 2.2, loss tan = 0.0009) with a thickness of

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 International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies 3

Fig. 2. Stepwise structure of single-element antenna: (a)

step 1 front view, (b) step 2 front view, (c) step 3 and
step 4 front view, (d) back view for step 1–step 3, and
(e) step 4 back view.

Fig. 3. Reflection coefficient of single-element antenna

design steps.

0.51 mm. The dimensions of single-element antenna structure are resonance at 3.5 GHz. Length CW1 of the slot is varied from 8
only 14 mm × 25 mm that is equal to 0.114λo × 0.204λo, where λo to 11 mm to obtain optimal performance. From Fig. 4(a), it can
is the free space wavelength at the resonating frequency of 2.45 be observed that increasing the length of the slot helps to reduce
GHz. Miniaturization is attained through etching four open-end the resonating band but degrades impedance matching.
slots on the rectangular patch along the x-axis on both the Therefore, CW1 = 9 mm is considered for further design which
sides. L-shaped partial ground plane is used for better impedance provides resonance at 3.9 GHz. Second slot is etched at the
matching and wider bandwidth. Length of the slots and other upper right corner which adds inductive effect in the structure.
parameters are optimized to tune the desired resonance using It helps to reduce the resonating band from 3.9 to 3.0 GHz with
Computer Simulation Technology (CST) microwave studio. good impedance matching. Effect of varying length CW4 is
As the antenna is designed to be operated on the human body, shown in Fig. 4(b). The increasing value of CW4 has an almost
all the simulations and optimization during design process per- negligible effect on return loss.
formed on the three-layered tissue model consist of skin (ϵr = In step 2, a new slot parallel to the first slot is etched that induces
38 and σ = 1.46 s/m), fat (ϵr= 5.2 and σ = 0.10 s/m), and muscle the inductive effect and shift the antenna resonance at 2.8 GHz.
(ϵr = 52.7 and σ = 1.8 s/m). The planar dimension of tissue Impedance plot for the evaluation steps of the antenna is shown
modal is 40 × 60 mm2 and its properties are taken according to in Fig. 5. In step 2, reactance shifts upward which shows high
[20, 21]. The geometrical structure of single-element antenna inductive reactance (xl = ωl) in impedance. The high value of
along with on-body simulation setup and surface current distribu- inductance helps to lower the resonance from 3 to 2.8 GHz. The
tion is shown in Fig. 1. optimal value of this slot is taken as “CW2 = 7mm” for the design.
Further in step 3 (Fig. 2(c)), another slot is etched parallel to
the top right slot to achieve the resonance at 2.45 GHz.
Stepwise evaluation of single radiator antenna
Reactance plot shifts downward making impedance more capaci-
Stepwise design evaluation of antenna is represented in Fig. 2. tive (xc = 1/ωc). From Fig. 3, it can be found that a reflection coef-
Comparison of reflection coefficient S11 for all the design steps ficient of 20 dB and a bandwidth of 120 MHz are obtained in step
is shown in Fig. 3. The proposed structure is initially designed 3. It is well known that the human body is a complex structure
as a rectangular microstrip patch with the partial ground plane. with multiple tissue layers. The thickness and electric properties
By etching multiple open-end slots, this structure is modified to of tissue layers vary for different body parts as well as for the indi-
resonance at a desired 2.45 GHz frequency. vidual. It was studied in the present literature that antenna fre-
In step 1, the antenna is designed by cutting two open-end quency may detune and impedance matching degrades when
slots at the two opposite corners of the radiator. First slot is subjected to various parts of the body [9, 12, 22, 23]. Thus, to
etched at the lower left corner which provides wideband overcome the limitation of frequency detuning and impedance

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 4 Anupma Gupta et al.

Fig. 4. Effect of varying slot lengths on reflection coefficient in step 1: (a) varying CW1 and (b) varying CW4.

Fig. 5. Plot for input impedance: (a) real part and (b) imaginary part.

mismatch in practical applications, the structure is modified by Table 1. Geometrical parameters of the proposed structure
using defected ground structure in step 4.
Parameter Value (mm) Parameter Value (mm)
Partial ground plane is converted into an L-shaped ground
plane. It tends to reduce the quality factor (Q) and improve the W 14 L 25
bandwidth (BW) of the proposed structure (BW = Fr/Q).
D1 4.53 CW1 4.47
Impedance curve represents 50 ohm resistance and null reactance
at 2.42 GHz. Reactance curve is shifting upward showing an D2 4.41 CW2 7.34
increase in inductance value and reduction in Q-factor. D3 9.26 CW3 9.3
Significant improvement in reflection coefficient from 13 to 40
D4 3.9 CW4 8.85
dB and a bandwidth of 300 MHz is obtained without altering
the central resonating frequency. D5 7.18 WP 13
To analyze the working principle, a relationship among slot LF 4.8 WF 2
dimensions and the resonance frequency is established. Surface
LG 3.2 WG 13.0
current distribution in Fig. 1(d) shows the resonating path at
2.45 GHz. Surface current has followed the meandered path Lc 13.5 Wc 20.0
through the open-end slots. Therefore, the length of the radiating WS 2.0 LS 4.4
path (LR) responsible for resonance can be calculated as

(WP − WF) frequency fr1 at this length is

LR = + D1 + (2 × CW1) + D2 + (2 × CW2)
2
c
+ D3. (1) fr1 = 





≈ 2.477 GHz. (2)
2 × LR × Ereff

From Fig. 1 and data given in Table 1, LR = 47.3 mm. Here, the
effective dielectric constant (Ereff) is calculated as 1.645. LR It shows that the calculated frequency from the antenna design
should be half wavelength at the resonance; therefore, resonating parameters is in good agreement with the desired frequency.

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 International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies 5

Fig. 6. Structure of MIMO antenna: (a) front view and (b) back view.

Design of MIMO structure

To design a MIMO antenna, two mirror image antenna elements
are placed parallel to each other. It was difficult to maintain high
isolation between two elements without a decoupling structure.
Therefore, to improve the isolation, inverted U-shaped stub is
added at the ground plane acting as a parasitic resonator. Length
of this stub is 47 mm (2 × Lc + Wc), which is approximately equal
to the value calculated in equation (1). Length of inverted
U-shaped stub satisfies the resonating length at 2.45 GHz. The
geometry of the MIMO structure is shown in Fig. 6. S-parameters
of the antenna with and without ground stub are compared in
Fig. 7. Adding of stub has enhanced the isolation from 11 to 32 dB.
The design approach for adding inverted U-shaped stub can be Fig. 7. S-parameters of MIMO antenna with and without stub.
explained with the help of the surface current shown in Fig. 8. It
can be observed that the current is excited from the open edge of
the lowermost slot and the maximum current is followed through Antenna shows the lowest gain of −0.9 dB and an efficiency of
the slots. Therefore, decoupling stub is added from the current 38% when placed in extreme proximity (s = 2 mm) of body tissue.
excitation point of radiator 1 to radiator 2. From the surface cur- Some of the near-field power is absorbed (Pabs) by the tissue. It
rent plot (Figs 8(b) and 8(c)), it can be found that the current depends upon the conductivity (σ) of tissue layers and near-field
flowing from port 1 to port 2 is offset by the ground stub electric field intensity (E) [2]. Electrical field intensity in the near
which reduces mutual coupling between antenna elements. field is given in equation (4), which shows field intensity reduces
with increasing distance from the antenna [24]. Therefore, an
improvement in the gain of 1.2 dB and in the efficiency of 8%
Effect of varying separation gap “s” between antenna and is observed with increasing s from 2 to 6 mm.
body tissue on antenna performance
1s 2
The large variation in the permittivity of body tissue and antenna Pabs = |E | dV, (3)
substrate causes varying effective dielectric constant of the antenna 2
which significantly detunes the resonating band. Therefore, the
antenna is placed at a gap “s” from the tissue model to avoid deg-  
Im × LR × sin u −v sin vt cos vt −v sin vt
radation of antenna performance. Human body keeps on moving, it E= + + . (4)
is hard to maintain the constant separation gap all the time. For this 4p1 c2 s s2 c s3 v
reason, three different values of gap (s = 2, 4, 6 mm) are used to
account the border of antenna reliability. Reflection coefficient, radi-
ation efficiency, and gain plot for varying “s” are shown in Fig. 9.
Results and discussion
Reducing the value of “s” causes lowering of central resonating
frequency. From Fig. 8(a), it can be observed that due to wide The proposed antenna is fabricated to validate the simulated
bandwidth, the proposed structure can effectively cover the results. Antenna parameters are measured using Agilent
desired ISM band from 2.4 to 2.48 GHz for all values of s. At N5247A programmable network analyzer and anechoic chamber.
“s = 4 mm”, a resonating frequency of 2.45 GHz is obtained. The actual on-body performance of the fabricated antenna is
Therefore, for all, the simulation and measurement value of “s” measured on a pork loin. Photographs of the experimental
is kept at 4 mm. setup are shown in Fig. 10.

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 6 Anupma Gupta et al.

Fig. 8. Surface current distribution of MIMO antenna (a) without stub, (b) with stub front view, and (c) back view.

Fig. 9. Effect of varying “s” on antenna perform-

ance: (a) reflection coefficient, (b) gain, and (c) radi-
ation efficiency.

Fig. 10. Photographs of the experimental setup: (a) antenna placed on pork loin, (b) return loss plot on VNA, and (c) antenna in an anechoic chamber.

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 International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies 7

Fig. 11. Measured and simulated reflection coefficient.

Fig. 12. (a) E-plane radiation pattern, (b) H-plane radiation pattern, (c) simulated 3D radiation pattern at 2.45 GHz, and (d) plot for simulated and measured gain
over the frequency.

S-parameters
Simulated 10 dB bandwidth is 300 MHz (2.3–2.6 GHz) whereas
Scattering parameters are measured to analyze the impedance measured bandwidth is 480 MHz (2.12–2.6 GHz). Measured
matching and level of mutual coupling in terms of reflection coef- data reveal wider bandwidth as compared to the simulation
ficient (S11) and transmission coefficients (S21), respectively. Plot data. A similar type of variation in simulated and measured
for simulated and measured S-parameters is shown in Fig. 11. results has been observed in [6, 13, 25]. Simulated and measured

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 8 Anupma Gupta et al.

offered by the antenna which is the required feature for the

on-body antenna. Three-dimensional plot for directivity at 2.45
GHz is shown in Fig. 12(c). Maximum directivity of 4.56 dBi is
obtained. Power is radiated away from the body. Each layer of
body tissue has different permittivity and thickness which causes
the internal reflection of electromagnetic waves. Therefore, super-
position of antenna back radiation and reflections from the multi-
layered human tissue introduces an improvement of directivity.
The simulated and measured gain plot is shown in Fig. 12(d). It
shows that antenna retains positive gain for the operating
bandwidth.

Fig. 13. SAR value of the proposed MIMO antenna.

Specific absorption rate
Near-field radiations of the wearable antenna affect the human
transmission coefficient shows that mutual coupling is less than body. Continuous exposure of radiations increases the tempera-
−30 dB for the required ISM band. ture of the tissue. Heat is generated due to the non-radiating
reactive near field. Excessive heat may damage cells and reduces
the blood circulation causing a disturbance in the functioning
Radiation characteristics
of sensitive organs. Thus, it is necessary to consider the power
Simulated and measured E-plane and H-plane radiation patterns absorbed by body tissue. Standard measure to evaluate this
for excitation at port 1 are shown in Figs 12(a) and 12(b). It can absorbed electromagnetic power by the body is defined as the spe-
be seen that broadside radiation pattern toward +z direction is cific absorption rate.

Fig. 14. S-parameters for bending along the x-axis.

Fig. 15. S-parameters for bending along the y-axis.

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 International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies 9

Fig. 16. 3D radiation plot for deformation cases: (a) along the x-axis and (b) along the y-axis.

According to the IEEE C95.1-2005 standard, SAR value should

not be larger than 2 W/Kg averaged over 10 g of tissue in the
shape of a cube [26]. Simulated SAR for the proposed antenna
at 2.45 GHz is shown in Fig. 13. The antenna has the maximum
SAR value of 0.512 W/Kg for 0.1 W of input power. The obtained
value is well below the maximum safety limit.

Effect of bending on antenna performance

In WBAN, wearable antennas are supposed to bend during vari-
ous body movements. Therefore, antenna performance is exam-
ined under structural deformation. The antenna is bent across a
circular phantom with two different radii of values 25 and 20 Fig. 17. ECC and DG of the proposed antenna.
mm. Radii are considered according to the average wrist size of
adults. For the larger radii, the antenna is self-conformal due to
its compact size. Variable Rx and Ry are taken to represent the
bending radii along the x- and y-axis, respectively. Reflection coef-
ficient (S11) for all the radii and transmission coefficient (S21) for
extreme bending are shown in Fig. 14 (x-axis bending) and in
Fig. 15 ( y-axis bending).
In the case of x-axis bending, a negligible effect on resonating
frequency and impedance matching is observed with decreasing
radii. Due to extreme bending at 20 mm, simulated reflection
coefficient shifts from −40 to −34 dB when compared with a
flat structure. Measured result for bending across Rx = 20 mm
also shows stable performance. Mutual coupling is not affected
by the structural deformation along the x-axis.
In the case of y-axis bending, a slight frequency detuning of
frequency toward rightward is obtained with reducing radii. The
simulated reflection coefficient is degraded from −40 to −35 dB
Fig. 18. Plot for channel capacity loss (CCL).
at the radii of 20 mm as compared to a flat structure. This effect
is due to the variation in the gap between open-end slots and their
width. Measured reflection coefficient shows the significant shift-
ing of central resonating frequency from 2.45 to 2.51 GHz. Still, coefficient for the ISM band well below −10 dB for all the bending
the antenna can effectively cover the ISM band due to its wide- radii of Rx and Ry.
band performance. Mutual coupling is also Detroit with y-axis Three-dimensional radiation plot for the bending condition is
deformation. Bent along y-axis has stretched the length of vertical shown in Fig. 16. For both the deformation conditions, maximum
arms of the ground stub. This probably degrades the isolation. It radiation is oriented away from the body tissue. For the x-axis
can be also observed that smaller radius has stronger bending bending, reduction in directivity is observed as compared to a
effects on antenna performance. Simulated and measured results flat structure. Stable response for radiation pattern is established
show that the proposed structure can maintain the reflection while bending along the y-axis.

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 10 Anupma Gupta et al.

Table 2. Comparison of the proposed antenna with the existing on-body antennas

SAR (W/Kg.) Port

Gain Bandwidth Efficiency with input isolation
Ref. Frequency (GHz) Material used Size (mm3) (dBi) (MHz) (%) power (dB)

[3] 2.45 Textile foam, 65.6 × 58.9 × 3.9 6.5 337 73 NA NA

εr = 1.45
[5] 2.4/5.5 Butadiene 50 × 40 × 4.6 NA 500/1000 25/27 0.428/1.87 at NA
rubber fabric 100 mW
(NBR-F)
εr = 2.9
[9] 2.45 Felt, εr = 1.2 r = 24 mm, −12.03 170 14 0.4 at W NA
h = 1 mm
[10] 2.45 FB4, εr = 2.55 r = 24 mm, −3.03 83 NA 5.04 at 1 W NA
h = 3.2 mm
[13] 2.45 Felt, εr = 1.2 46 × 25 × 2 0.64 dB 105 NA NA NA
[14] 2.45, 5 Felt, εr = 1.3 101.9 × 92.3 × 3 NA 160/671 50/58 0.056/0.067 20
at 0.5 W
[15] UWB (2.74–12) Jeans, εr = 1.6 110 × 35 × 1.5 6.9 dB 9.26 GHz NA NA 26
[16] UWB (3.5–8) Jeans, εr = 1.6 30 × 50 × 1.5 NA 700 NA NA 32
[17] 2.45 Fr-4, εr = 4.4 30 × 30 × 0.5 NA 140 40 NA 20
[18] 2.45 Fr-4, εr = 4.4 Radius = 22.9 3 90 40 0.55 at 100 15
mm, h = 3.2 mm mW
[19] 2.45 Fr-4, εr = 4.4 54.98 × 76 mm2 2.83 1900 NA 1.2 12
Proposed 2.45 Rogers 5880, 28 × 25 × 0.5 0.5 dB 300 40 0.512 for 30
work εr = 2.2 0.1 W

Diversity performance where a R is the 2 × 2 correlation matrix and its elements are given
as aii = 1 − (|Sii |2 + |Sij |2 ); aij = 1 − (S∗ii Sij + S∗ji Sjj ).
To support the MIMO capability of the proposed antenna, import-
Measured and simulated CCL are shown in Fig. 18. The pro-
ant diversity parameters envelope correlation coefficient (ECC),
posed structure has <0.12 bits/s/Hz value of CCL at ISM band.
diversity gain (DG), and channel capacity loss (CCL) are analyzed
as explained in [16, 18]. ECC signifies the correlation of antenna
radiation pattern with another antenna when operated in closed
proximity. The high value of ECC degrades the antenna MIMO Conclusion
performance. ECC value lower than 0.5 is acceptable for MIMO We have demonstrated a MIMO antenna structure for on-body
antennas. ECC is calculated using the 3D radiation pattern as communication. A prototype covering 2.45 GHz band is
   designed, fabricated, and its performance is measured on pork
 © V [E  1 ( u, f ) · E2∗ (u, f)]dV2 loin. The proposed MIMO structure has an overall dimension
re =   , (5) of 28 × 25 × 0.51 mm3. The wide bandwidth of 300 MHz is suit-
 1 (u, f)|2 dV · © V |E
© V |E  2 (u, f)|2 dV
able to maintain a robust communication link when operated in
a different biological environment. Improved port isolation of
where E1 (u, f) and E
2∗ (u, f) are the far fields of antenna for radi-
30 dB and a good diversity performance are obtained. Stable per-
ator 1 and radiator 2. formance is obtained when the antenna is subjected to structural
DG shows the accomplishment of diversity performance of deformation. Low SAR value of 0.512 W/Kg ensures the user’s
MIMO antenna and it can be evaluated using ECC. safety. Antenna performance is compared with the existing











single-element and MIMO-based on-body antennas in Table 2.
DG = 10 (1 − |re |). (6) The proposed structure is the smallest of all the antennas com-
pared in Table 2 with satisfactory on-body as well as diversity
Simulated and measured ECC and DG plots are shown in performance.
Fig. 17. It can be observed that ECC results are well below
0.025 and DG is more than 9.8 dB for 2.4–2.48 GHz.
CCL limits the data transmission rate over the channel. The References
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https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1759078720000471
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G (2018) Design and performance analysis of dual-band wearable tial slotted ground for bandwidth enhancement of wristband devices. IET
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International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies 10, 24. Prasad KD and Handa D (2003) Antenna and Wave Propagation, 3rd
1–11. Edn. New Delhi, India: Satya Parkashan.
6. Gao GP, Hu B, Wang SF and Yang C (2018) Wearable circular ring slot 25. Koo T, Hong Y, Park G, Shin K and Yook J (2015) Extremely low-profile
antenna with EBG structure for wireless body area network. IEEE antenna for attachable bio-sensors. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters 17, 434–437. Propagation 63, 1537–1544.
7. Alemaryeen A and Noghanian S (2017) Crumpling effects and specific 26. IEEE Std. C95.1 (2005) IEEE standard for safety levels with respect to
absorption rates of flexible AMC integrated antennas. IET Microwaves, human exposure to the radio frequency electromagnetic fields 3 kHz to
Antennas & Propagation 12, 627–635. 300 GHz.
8. Lilja J, Salonen P, Kaija T and Maagt P (2012) Design and manufactur-
ing of robust textile antennas for harsh environments. IEEE Transactions
Anupma Gupta received her B.Tech degree in
on Antennas and Propagation 60, 4130–4140. Electronics and Communication Engineering
9. Tak J, Lee S and Choi J (2014) All-textile higher order mode circular
from Guru Jambheshwar University, India, in
patch antenna for on-body to on-body communications. IET
2006 and M.Tech degree from Maharishi
Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation 9, 576–584. Markandeshwar University, Mullana, India, in
10. Tong X, Liu C, Liu X, Guo H and Yang X (2018) Switchable on-/off-
2010. She is currently working toward the
body antenna for 2.45 GHz WBAN applications. IEEE Transactions on Ph.D. degree at Thapar University. Her main
Antennas and Propagation 66, 967–971. research interests are the design and optimiza-
11. Lin CH, Saito K, Takahashi M and Ito K (2012) A compact planar
tion of microstrip antennas, biomedical telem-
inverted-F antenna for 2.45 GHz on-body communications. IEEE etry, and electromagnetics.
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 60, 4422–4426.
12. Shakib MN, Moghavvem M and Mahadi WN (2017) Design of a tri-band Ankush Kansal received his B.Tech. and M.Tech.
off-body antenna for WBAN communication. IEEE Antennas and degree in Electronics and Communication
Wireless Propagation Letters 16, 210–213. Engineering from PTU, Jalandhar and the
13. Hu B, Gao GP, He LL, Cong XD and Zhao JN (2017) Bending and Ph.D. degree from Thapar University, Patiala
on-arm effects on a wearable antenna for 2.45 GHz body area network. in the area of Wireless Communication. He is
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters 15, 378–381. currently working as an Assistant Professor at
14. Yan S, Soh PJ and Vandenbosch GAE (2015) Dual-band textile MIMO Thapar University, Patiala. He has published
antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. 25 research articles in referred international
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 63, 4640–4647. journals, international conference, and national
15. Biswas AK and Chakraborty U (2019) Compact wearable MIMO antenna conference. He is a lifetime member of ISTE. His research interests include net-
with improved port isolation for ultra-wideband applications. IET working, wireless communication, image processing, and embedded systems.
Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation 13, 498–504.
16. Biswas AK and Chakraborty U (2019) Investigation on decoupling of Paras Chawla received his B.Tech (Honors)
wideband wearable multiple-input multiple output antenna elements and M.Tech degree in Electronics and
using microstrip neutralization line. RF and Microwave Computer Aided Communication Engineering from Kurukshetra
Engineering e21723, 1–11. University, NIT, Kurukshetra and the Ph.D.
17. Qu L, Piao H, Qu Y, Kim H and Kim H (2018) Circularly polarised degree from Thapar University, Patiala. He has
MIMO ground radiation antennas for wearable devices. IET Electronics more than 14 years of teaching experience and
Letters 54, 189–190. currently working as a Professor and HOD in
18. Dingliang W, Yang H, Max OM and Hanyang WHZ (2018) A compact the ECE Department at Chandigarh University,
and low-profile MIMO antenna using a miniature circular high- Mohali (India). He guided a total of 16 M.Tech
impedance surface for wearable applications. IEEE Transactions on dissertations successfully and also guiding seven students of the Ph.D. degree.
Antennas and Propagation 66.1, 96–104. He received the “Coventor Scholarship award” from MANCEF, New Mexico,
19. Chouhan S, Panda DK, Khushwah PK and Mishra PK (2019) USA for his proposal in the conference COMS-2010. His team received consecu-
Octagonal-shaped wideband MIMO antenna for human interface device tively 2 years the “Tenderfoot Award” collaboratively given by American
and S-band application. International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Astronautical Society and American Institute of Aeronautics, for “CanSat
Technologies 11, 287–296. Competition”, June 2015 and 2016, Burkett, Texas, USA. His main research inter-
20. Gemio J, Parron J and Soler J (2010) Human body effects on implantable ests include microstrip antennas, RF MEMS, RF front-end mobile terminal, LTE,
antennas for ISM band applications: models comparison and propagation and 5G. He has published more than 50 papers in various reputed national and
losses study. Progress in Electromagnetic Research 110, 437–452. international journals/conferences, one SCI book chapter, and 10 patents filed.

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