LAUSR

Abstract A compact single fed circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna (CPDRA) for off-body communication in wireless body area network (WBAN) applications is proposed. The proposed antenna consists of a modified rectangular DRA made of Al2O3 with a permittivity of er = 9.8 and fed by a 50-Ω coaxial probe. Two unequal vertical slits are etched off from both the corner edges of the rectangular dielectric resonator to generate TE δ 11 x and TE 1 δ 1 y modes, and to reduce the overall size of the proposed antenna. Moreover, an efficient single layer equivalent phantom model is designed to reduce the simulation time for the analysis of off-WBAN communications. The proposed antenna is fabricated and characterized in free space as well as in on-body environment. It provides measured impedance and axial ratio (AR) bandwidths of 66.19% (4.72–9.39 GHz) and 15.01% (6.22–7.23 GHz) respectively in free space, 65.91% (4.73–9.38 GHz) and 16.02% (6.20–7.28 GHz) respectively in on-body environment. A full ground plane is used to provide unidirectional radiation pattern and greater isolation from the human body with low SAR i.e. 0.397 W/kg and 0.193 W/kg for 1 g and 10 g tissue respectively. These features make the proposed CPDRA is suitable for off-body communication and can easily be integrated in wireless devices.