2012 7th International Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering
20-22 December, 2012, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Body-Wearable Beam Steering Antenna Array for
5.2 GHz WLAN Applications
Md. Rashidul Islam1, and Mohammod Ali1*
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
*alimo@cec.sc.edu
AbstractThis paper presents the study and design of a 5.2
GHz WLAN body-wearable electronically steerable parasitic
antenna radiator (ESPAR) array. A collinear array of four
driven dipoles and eight parasitic dipoles is formed to attain
beam steering in the azimuth plane and a narrow beam in the
elevation plane. The collinear ESPAR array provides beam
steering in three directions while allowing 12.8 dBi of peak gain
at 5.2 GHz. PIN diode switches are used to control the beam of
the array.
Index TermsBody-wearable antenna, array, ESPAR,
WLAN.
I. INTRODUCTION
Body-centric communication has recently gained great
momentum as evidenced by the formation of a Standard for
such communication devices called the IEEE 802.15 group
[1]. Body-centric communication, especially off-body
communication is of prime interest to doctors and paramedics,
first responders, law-enforcement personnel, and military
personnel. These professionals need to communicate with
each other as well as to nearby fixed/mobile base stations
reliably. One of the Major challenges in body-centric
communication is designing wearable antennas that are of
smaller footprint, efficient, low-cost, conformal, flexible, and
robust, which meet the necessary regulatory requirements.
Researchers have reported fixed beam wearable antennas
intended for off-body communications [2]-[5]. Studies on
wearable antennas have mainly focused on microstrip patch
antennas because of their higher directivities obtained due to
the presence of a large ground plane underneath the antenna
aperture.
It is well known that degradation in signal to noise ratio
(SNR) deteriorates bit error rate (BER). But the SNR of a
communication channel is directly related to the antenna gain.
In a multipath and scattering rich environment antenna gain
fluctuations are quite common which gave birth to the idea of
diversity reception [6]-[8] and more recently on-board smart
antennas that are more resistant to multipath fading and other
forms of signal attenuation. It is evident that more significant
improvement in communication link margin and BER can be
obtained for body-worn antennas if antenna arrays with higher
gain can be developed. Moreover, if the antenna beam is not a
fixed beam and instead is steerable it will provide large
improvement in performance in a multipath fading
environment.
A simpler low-cost solution can be an electronically
steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) which has its origin
in [9]. Harrington [9] introduced the concept of a reactively
controlled directive array with one driven dipole and six
parasitic dipoles which surrounded the driven dipole in a
circular fashion. It was demonstrated that the antenna beam
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447
could be scanned over an azimuth angle of 60 by adding
variable reactances at the bases of the parasitic dipoles. Other
examples of ESPAR antenna for base stations and wireless
network terminals include [10]-[11].
In [12] we introduced the ESPAR concept for mobile
terminal applications. A driven planar inverted-F antenna
(PIFA) accompanied by two parasitic inverted-L antennas that
were controlled by varactor diodes allowed beam steering and
SAR reduction when used next to an anatomically correct
human head. More recently we developed body-wearable
beam steering ESPAR arrays for 2.4 GHz applications [13].
In this paper we report the concepts and findings of a
beam steerable collinear dipole array that operates in the 5.2
GHz WLAN frequency band. The array beam is steered in the
azimuth plane with the help of PIN diode switches. By
developing the array in collinear form a high gain narrow
elevation beam is achieved.
II. ARRAY CONFIGURATION
The array consists of a driven and two parasitic strip
dipoles (p1 and p2) as shown in Fig. 1(a). The parasitic
dipoles are V-shaped. This helps achieve better impedance
matching for the array. The V-dipoles are placed at a distance
of 10 mm from the driven dipole (Fig. 1(b)). This separation
distance also ensures better impedance matching. The V-
dipoles are terminated with PIN diode switches, Sw1 and Sw2
as shown in Fig. 1(a). Due to the proximity of p1 and p2 to the
driven dipole currents are induced on them. The parasitic V-
dipoles are controlled using switches Sw1 and Sw2.
The array was simulated using HFSS (Ansys Inc.). The V-
dipoles act as reflectors for the dimensions given in Fig. 1(a).
By turning the switches ON/OFF it is possible to steer the
radiation beam in three different directions in the azimuth
plane. The ON state of each switch was modelled using a 5 pF
capacitor. This was done to represent the presence of two DC
blocking capacitors (10 pF) connected in series with each
switch. ON state resistance of the switch was ignored. The
OFF state was modelled using a 0.01 pF capacitor to avoid
any induced current at 5.2 GHz.
Fig. 1(b) shows the array for a possible placement in body-
worn applications. The parasitic dipoles are placed at a
distance of 10 mm from a human body. Thus the driven dipole
is 20 mm away from the surface of the human body.
To obtain a high gain narrow beam in the elevation plane
(i.e. ZX plane) a 4x1 collinear array was formed considering
the proposed array as a sub-array. The distance between the
sub-arrays was selected on the basis of lower mutual coupling
between the driven elements and smaller side lobe levels in
the elevation plane. Thus the resulting collinear array
measures 144 mm x 27 mm and consists of four driven
dipoles and eight parasitic dipoles as shown in Fig. 1(c).
 448

Computed S21 magnitudes for the switching combinations

p1 p2
mentioned above are also plotted in Fig. 2. Note that S21 refers
to the mutual coupling between driven elements 1 and 2 (Fig.
1(c)). As seen in Fig. 2, the coupling level is below -18 dB for
14 mm 45
the entire 5.2 GHz band which is acceptable for the array. S31
SW1 SW2 24 mm and S41 magnitudes were less than -30 dB and -42 dB
Z respectively which were also confirmed by simulations.

Y
1 mm
1.25 mm 1.25 mm
3 mm

27 mm
(a)

10 mm p1 p2 Y Cm#1: Sw1, Sw3, Sw5 and Sw7 are ON

10 mm Cm#2: All switches are ON
Cm#3: Sw2, Sw4, Sw6 and Sw8 are ON
(b)
p8 (a) (b)
p7
SW7 SW8 Fig. 3 Computed radiation patterns at 5.2 GHz in free space in the (a)
azimuth (i.e. XY) plane and (b) elevation (i.e. ZX) plane.
4
p5 p6
SW5 SW6 Computed free space radiation patterns of the collinear
144 mm 3
array in the azimuth and elevation planes are presented in Figs.
40 mm
p3 p4 3(a) & (b) respectively. As seen in Fig. 3(a), the array scans
SW3 SW4 the beam maxima from -120 to +120 in the azimuth plane
2 for switching combinations cm#1, cm#2 and cm#3. Peak gain
p1 p2
SW1 SW2 for the three combinations are in the range of 10.5-12.2 dBi
with the maximum value occurring for cm#2 (all switches
1
27 mm ON). The half power beam width in Fig. 3(a) is 120. In
(c) contrast, the half power beam width is only 20 in the
Fig. 1 Proposed 5.2 GHz antenna array, (a) detail dimensions, (b) top elevation plane (Fig. 3(b)). As before, the highest peak gain of
view of the array for a possible placement in body-worn applications 12.2 dBi occurs for cm#2. The peak gain is 10 dBi for other
and (c) formation of a 4x1 collinear array.
switching combinations. The front to back ratio of the array is
15 dB which can be utilized for exposure reduction in a
human body.
III. RESULTS
B. Next to a Block of Muscle
A. In Free Space
To investigate the presence of a human body on the
The collinear array was simulated in free space using HFSS.
performance of the collinear array finite difference time
Computed S11 for different switching combinations are shown
domain simulations were performed in XFDTD (Remcom
in Fig. 2. As seen the array operates within S11 <-15 dB in Inc.). In order to emulate a human trunk a small cylindrical
the 5.2 GHz band (5.15-5.35 GHz) for three switching block of muscle was used. Tissue properties at 5.2 GHz were
combinations namely, (a) cm#1: Sw1, Sw3, Sw5, Sw7 ON, taken from [14]. The array was placed at a distance of 10 mm
others OFF, (b) cm#2: all switches ON and (c) cm#3: Sw2, from the muscle block. The simulation setup is shown in Fig.
Sw4, Sw6, Sw8 ON, others OFF. These switching 4.
combinations enabled three beam steering angles described Computed radiation patterns next to the muscle block are
later in this section. shown in Figs. 5(a) and (b) for the azimuth and elevation
planes respectively. Comparing Fig. 5(a) with Fig. 3(a) it can
be observed that the beam scanning range next to the muscle
block is narrower than that in free space. This happens due to
S11 the blockage created by the muscle block. Nevertheless, the
peak gain was within 11-12.8 dBi which is slightly higher
than the corresponding peak gain in free space.
From the elevation plane radiation patterns (Fig. 5(b)) it
can be seen that the half power beam width next to the muscle
S21 block did not change compared to that in free space.
Specific absorption rate (SAR) induced in the muscle block
due to the collinear array was also computed using XFDTD.
Computed peak 1-g and 10-g average SAR for different
Fig. 2 Computed S11 and S21 magnitudes of the array for different switching
combination.
 449

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Muscle A collinear parasitic antenna array is proposed for body-
centric communications. The array scans beam maxima both
in free space and next to a block of muscle in the azimuth
plane. A narrow beamwidth of 20 is achieved in the elevation
300 mm
plane. Using a simple ON/OFF switching scheme of PIN
diode switches the array beam maximum can be controlled. A
Z peak gain of 12.8 dBi can be obtained placing the array next
to a human body. The array also ensures safe exposure level
Y
compliant with regulatory limits.
.
300 mm REFERENCES
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Table-I: Computed SAR in a block of muscle at 5.2 GHz due to the proposed
collinear array. Separation between the muscle block and the array: 10 mm.

Peak 1-g Peak 10-g

Frequency Switching Combinations avg. SAR avg. SAR
(W/Kg) (W/Kg)
5.2 GHz cm# 1 3.33 1.34
2W cm# 2 (all switches ON) 1.51 0.46
cm# 3 3.23 1.34