Design of 1*4 Microstrip Antenna Array on the Human Thigh with Gain Enhancement

Abstract

In this paper, at first attempted to design and simulate a stacked circular microstrip patch antenna for high gain at frequency 2.45 GHz, to apply on the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) applications. The antenna needs to be minimized for the array mounted on the human thigh, which has high gain and pattern scan capability. The substrate with a high relative permittivity is used for the designed antenna to minimize the dimension of the antenna. A 1*4 array antenna is designed for mount on the human thigh. The amplitude and phase of each antenna are obtained using the maximum-gain theorem to achieve the maximum gain of this array antenna. The coaxial feed is used to achieve good impedance matching, low cross-polarization, and easy control of the amplitude and phase of the element. For designing this entire array antenna, three-dimensional electromagnetic field simulation software Ansoft HFSS based on the finite element method is applied. To experimentally verify the performance, a prototype of the array antenna is fabricated and measurement is performed. The realized gain of the designed array antenna at the resonant frequency is 11 dB. This array structure can be mounted on a human thigh, waist, or head for medical applications, depending on the specific radius.