Abstract
The demand for wearable technologies has grown tremendously in recent years. Wearable antennas are used for various applications, in many cases within the context of wireless body area networks (WBAN). In WBAN, the presence of the human body poses a significant challenge to the wearable antennas. Specifically, such requirements are required to be considered on a priority basis in the wearable antennas, such as structural deformation, precision, and accuracy in fabrication methods and their size. Various researchers are active in this field and, accordingly, some significant progress has been achieved recently. This article attempts to critically review the wearable antennas especially in light of new materials and fabrication methods, and novel designs, such as miniaturized button antennas and miniaturized single and multi-band antennas, and their unique smart applications in WBAN. Finally, the conclusion has been drawn with respect to some future directions.
Highlights
The 5G network is on the verge of deployment across many countries, as it demonstrates a great deal of improvement in wireless data rates, connectivity, bandwidth (BW), coverage with the reduction in energy consumption, and latency
A 2D metallic niobium diselenide (NbSe2) was used for the antenna design that provides a sub-micrometres thickness of 855 nm, which is less than the skin depth of any other materials
In order to cope with the above issues, recently high-performance conductive graphene and MXene ink have been used for the wearable antennas due to their remarkable electrical properties
Summary
The 5G network is on the verge of deployment across many countries, as it demonstrates a great deal of improvement in wireless data rates, connectivity, bandwidth (BW), coverage with the reduction in energy consumption, and latency. A few other researchers examined the influence of the human body on antenna performance and the specific absorption rate (SAR) using different approaches [60,61] Despite all these efforts, the fabrication methods for the design of wearable antennas showed complexity, less precision, and a tedious process [62]. This review article covers all the recent trends in the wearable antennas regarding the materials, fabrication methods, designs, and advanced applications in WBAN.
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