Liquid EBG-Backed Stretchable Slot Antenna for Human Body
Jen-Hahn Low, Pei Song Chee, Eng-Hock Lim
Abstract
For the first time, liquid metal is incorporated with an elastomer platform for designing an electromagnetic bandgap (EBG)-backed wearable antenna that can be placed on human body. Here, the liquid metal (EGaIn) is injected into a soft and stretchable Ecoflex 0030 substrate for making a fluidic slot antenna and a liquid EBG (LEBG) structure. The LEBG is then placed at the back of the slot antenna for mitigating the effects of human body and improving the antenna performance. It has an antenna gain of 5.80 dBi in the boresight and a low specific absorption rate (SAR for 1 g U.S. standard) of 1.25 W/kg. Since liquid metal is highly dense, the ground plane of the LEBG is separated into six segments, which are connected through narrow bridges. Due to the use of such design, the wobbly effect of the dense liquid metal can be reduced significantly. The measured impedance bandwidth (3.23–3.59 GHz) of the proposed antenna is very stable and not affected much by its own structural deformation on human body. Since the elastomer platform is waterproof, it makes the antenna characteristics very stable in humid environment, which is a very desirable feature for wearable antennas.