Crumpling effects and specific absorption rates of flexible AMC integrated antennas

Abstract

This study presents the design of a wearable textile-based monopole antenna integrated with a flexible artificial magnetic conductor (AMC). The proposed design covers the industrial, scientific, and medical 2.45 GHz band. An AMC reflector is utilised to isolate the human body from undesired electromagnetic radiation and to improve the antenna radiation characteristics. A monopole antenna was backed with an AMC reflector and tested in free space and on human body models. The inclusion of an AMC reflector increases the front-to-back ratio and antenna gain in free space. On the human body models, the AMC antenna provides stable performance and a reduction in specific absorption rate levels compared with using the conventional monopole antenna. Moreover, the performance of the antenna with and without the AMC reflector under different crumpling conditions has been studied and presented. The effect of crumpling on reflection phase characteristics of the AMC reflector has been analysed as well.