Design of Compact Flexible UWB Antenna Using Different Substrate Materials for WBAN Applications

In this paper, the design process of compact flexible ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna using various substrate materials such as FR4, Kapton, and Rogers RT5880 is discussed and experimentally investigated. The proposed antenna is structured as a flexible model that can conform to suite the human body surface to be suitable for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. The performance parameters of the antenna have been evaluated by using CST Microwave Studio software and very similar results have been achieved by applying FR4, Kapton, and Rogers RT5880 substrates, but the latter substrate provides optimized results. Therefore, the Rogers RT5880 substrate was chosen to realize the experimental antenna to validate its performance. There was excellent agreement between the simulated and measured results. The proposed antenna is miniature having dimensions of $22\times 28\times 1.6\ \text{mm}^{3}$ and operates at dual band across 4.8-5.3 GHz and 7.0-8.6 GHz. It has a high gain above 5.5 dBi at both bands and radiates omnidirectionally. Moreover, it has a simple geometry making it easy to manufacture and is therefore cost effective. This antenna is applicable for wireless body area network (WBAN).