Design and Characterization of Advanced Body Worn Antennas for Healthcare Monitoring: A Review

Abstract

Antennas worn on the body are commonly used on wireless communication systems for different sectors like healthcare, sports monitoring, military operation, etc., because they tend to be small in size and flexible. Furthermore, material selection in body-worn antennas is a crucial factor too. Antenna fashion is yet another aspect which is rather trivial. Being flexible and biocompatible, two key materials properties are indispensable for comfortable and body-compatible devices simultaneously with excellent electrical output ability. The disadvantage of masking small objects from RFID readers for data security reasons was the additional complexity because of textile-integrated antennas and printable conductive inks; however, recent advances in these areas have addressed these concerns. In this chapter, the authors focus on wearable antennas advancement and its process of finding the different parameters like return loss, gain, SAR value, etc.