A modified interdigital EBG reflector for wireless body area network applications

Abstract

AbstractA modified, compact, and via‐less interdigital electromagnetic band gap cell intended for wearable application at medical body area network (MBAN), and Wi‐Fi bands is reported in this article. The reflection phase of the proposed EBG unit cell is then investigated to design a reflector consisting of 3 × 2 array of EBG cells for an efficient radiation of a planar monopole antenna. The size and shape of the EBG unit cell has been designed in such a way that it achieves 0° reflection phase with minimum dimension of 14.3 and 15.34 mm along x‐axis and y‐axis, respectively. Subsequently, the surface wave rejection ability of the EBG incorporated ground plane is also studied and presented in this article. A planar monopole antenna incorporating the proposed EBG reflector at MBAN frequency exhibits gain, and efficiency of 6.4 dB, and 95%, respectively, and has net dimension of 34 mm × 55 mm × 4.67 mm along x‐axis, y‐axis, and z‐axis, respectively. Finally, specific absorption rate (SAR) analysis carried out for one layer, homogenous model, and three‐layer, heterogeneous model, shows a considerable reduction in SAR values for 0.5 W of power fed to the antenna. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through good agreement between the simulated and the experimental results.