Low specific absorption rate and gain-enhanced meandered bowtie antenna utilizing flexible dipole-like artificial magnetic conductor for medical application at 2.4 GHz

摘要

A flexible meander bowtie antenna incorporated with dipole-like artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is proposed. Two different types of AMC design are presented for comparison. A new medical transdermal patch is used as the dielectric substrate for both antenna and AMC. The gain enhancement is achieved using a modified dipole-like unit cell of the AMC. The effect of the substrate thickness and separation distance between the antenna and the AMC is investigated. The results show that the antenna is operating at its original frequency (as in free space) when the antenna-AMC separation distance is more than one-eighth of the wavelength. The directive radiation pattern with high gain is obtained when the flexible antenna is placed above the AMC structure. The AMC increases the antenna's gain by 4.15 and 4.931 dB for single-dipole AMC and double-dipole AMC, respectively. The 10 g specific absorption rate is reduced by 98% and 68% for both simulated and measured results, respectively. The results demonstrate that the proposed flexible antenna-AMC is suitable for on-body application specifically for continuous health monitoring.