Investigation of Candidate Antennas for Body Area Networks: Characterization in the Proximity of Human Tissues

In this work, we focus on ceramic antenna properties in the vicinity of the human tissues, motivated by their potential usage in body area network (BAN) applications. We first investigate a commercially-available ceramic antenna in controlled experiments using tissue-mimicking phantoms. Second, we propose an alternative ceramic antenna deign for the 3-10GHz range, and show the results of its properties near body tissues obtained through simulation. We find that the antenna performance will vary significantly with relatively small increase of distance from the tissue surface (skin); hence, careful consideration needs to be given to proper placement and robustness of antennas intended for BANs.