On body and off body communication using a compact wideband and high gain wearable textile antenna

In this paper, a compact low-profile dual-band wearable textile antenna is proposed for on-body and off-body communications. The presented antenna works efficiently in the 5G n79 frequency band (4.4 - 5 GHz) and the ISM band (5.725 - 5.875 GHz). The designed antenna has an ultra-wide impedance bandwidth of 2.01 GHz and peak realized gains of 10.5 dBi and 12 dBi at 4.5 GHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively. The antenna has a small footprint (π × 0.3λ₀²), which is inspired by circular fractal geometry. The performance of the presented wearable antenna is evaluated at various body parts, including the arm, wrist, and chest. The link margin is evaluated in the on-body and off-body communication scenarios, i.e., communication with the implantable antenna and the outside-body antenna, which is 80 dB and 65 dB at 4.5 GHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively. The 1 gm/10 gm specific absorption rate values at 4.5 GHz and 5.8 GHz are 0.12/0.098 and 0.11/0.082, respectively, which are significantly lower than the standard values, making the proposed antenna suitable for modern wearable applications.