2012 7th International Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering 20-22 December, 2012, Dhaka, Bangladesh

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Body-Wearable Beam Steering Antenna Array for 5.2 GHz WLAN Applications
Md. Rashidul Islam1, and Mohammod Ali1*
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 *alimo@cec.sc.edu

AbstractThis paper presents the study and design of a 5.2 GHz WLAN body-wearable electronically steerable parasitic antenna radiator (ESPAR) array. A collinear array of four driven dipoles and eight parasitic dipoles is formed to attain beam steering in the azimuth plane and a narrow beam in the elevation plane. The collinear ESPAR array provides beam steering in three directions while allowing 12.8 dBi of peak gain at 5.2 GHz. PIN diode switches are used to control the beam of the array. Index TermsBody-wearable antenna, array, ESPAR, WLAN.

I. INTRODUCTION Body-centric communication has recently gained great momentum as evidenced by the formation of a Standard for such communication devices called the IEEE 802.15 group [1]. Body-centric communication, especially off-body communication is of prime interest to doctors and paramedics, first responders, law-enforcement personnel, and military personnel. These professionals need to communicate with each other as well as to nearby fixed/mobile base stations reliably. One of the Major challenges in body-centric communication is designing wearable antennas that are of smaller footprint, efficient, low-cost, conformal, flexible, and robust, which meet the necessary regulatory requirements. Researchers have reported fixed beam wearable antennas intended for off-body communications [2]-[5]. Studies on wearable antennas have mainly focused on microstrip patch antennas because of their higher directivities obtained due to the presence of a large ground plane underneath the antenna aperture. It is well known that degradation in signal to noise ratio (SNR) deteriorates bit error rate (BER). But the SNR of a communication channel is directly related to the antenna gain. In a multipath and scattering rich environment antenna gain fluctuations are quite common which gave birth to the idea of diversity reception [6]-[8] and more recently on-board smart antennas that are more resistant to multipath fading and other forms of signal attenuation. It is evident that more significant improvement in communication link margin and BER can be obtained for body-worn antennas if antenna arrays with higher gain can be developed. Moreover, if the antenna beam is not a fixed beam and instead is steerable it will provide large improvement in performance in a multipath fading environment. A simpler low-cost solution can be an electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) which has its origin in [9]. Harrington [9] introduced the concept of a reactively controlled directive array with one driven dipole and six parasitic dipoles which surrounded the driven dipole in a circular fashion. It was demonstrated that the antenna beam
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could be scanned over an azimuth angle of 60 by adding variable reactances at the bases of the parasitic dipoles. Other examples of ESPAR antenna for base stations and wireless network terminals include [10]-[11]. In [12] we introduced the ESPAR concept for mobile terminal applications. A driven planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) accompanied by two parasitic inverted-L antennas that were controlled by varactor diodes allowed beam steering and SAR reduction when used next to an anatomically correct human head. More recently we developed body-wearable beam steering ESPAR arrays for 2.4 GHz applications [13]. In this paper we report the concepts and findings of a beam steerable collinear dipole array that operates in the 5.2 GHz WLAN frequency band. The array beam is steered in the azimuth plane with the help of PIN diode switches. By developing the array in collinear form a high gain narrow elevation beam is achieved. II. ARRAY CONFIGURATION The array consists of a driven and two parasitic strip dipoles (p1 and p2) as shown in Fig. 1(a). The parasitic dipoles are V-shaped. This helps achieve better impedance matching for the array. The V-dipoles are placed at a distance of 10 mm from the driven dipole (Fig. 1(b)). This separation distance also ensures better impedance matching. The Vdipoles are terminated with PIN diode switches, Sw1 and Sw2 as shown in Fig. 1(a). Due to the proximity of p1 and p2 to the driven dipole currents are induced on them. The parasitic Vdipoles are controlled using switches Sw1 and Sw2. The array was simulated using HFSS (Ansys Inc.). The Vdipoles act as reflectors for the dimensions given in Fig. 1(a). By turning the switches ON/OFF it is possible to steer the radiation beam in three different directions in the azimuth plane. The ON state of each switch was modelled using a 5 pF capacitor. This was done to represent the presence of two DC blocking capacitors (10 pF) connected in series with each switch. ON state resistance of the switch was ignored. The OFF state was modelled using a 0.01 pF capacitor to avoid any induced current at 5.2 GHz. Fig. 1(b) shows the array for a possible placement in bodyworn applications. The parasitic dipoles are placed at a distance of 10 mm from a human body. Thus the driven dipole is 20 mm away from the surface of the human body. To obtain a high gain narrow beam in the elevation plane (i.e. ZX plane) a 4x1 collinear array was formed considering the proposed array as a sub-array. The distance between the sub-arrays was selected on the basis of lower mutual coupling between the driven elements and smaller side lobe levels in the elevation plane. Thus the resulting collinear array measures 144 mm x 27 mm and consists of four driven dipoles and eight parasitic dipoles as shown in Fig. 1(c).

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p1

p2

14 mm SW1 SW2

45 24 mm Z Y

Computed S21 magnitudes for the switching combinations mentioned above are also plotted in Fig. 2. Note that S21 refers to the mutual coupling between driven elements 1 and 2 (Fig. 1(c)). As seen in Fig. 2, the coupling level is below -18 dB for the entire 5.2 GHz band which is acceptable for the array. S31 and S41 magnitudes were less than -30 dB and -42 dB respectively which were also confirmed by simulations.

1 mm

1.25 mm

3 mm

1.25 mm

27 mm (a) X 10 mm 10 mm p1 (b) p7 SW7 p5 SW5 144 mm p3 SW3 p1 SW1 4 3 2 p2 SW2 p8 SW8 p6 SW6 p4 SW4 40 mm p2

Cm#1: Sw1, Sw3, Sw5 and Sw7 are ON Cm#2: All switches are ON Cm#3: Sw2, Sw4, Sw6 and Sw8 are ON (a) (b) Fig. 3 Computed radiation patterns at 5.2 GHz in free space in the (a) azimuth (i.e. XY) plane and (b) elevation (i.e. ZX) plane.

1 27 mm (c) Fig. 1 Proposed 5.2 GHz antenna array, (a) detail dimensions, (b) top view of the array for a possible placement in body-worn applications and (c) formation of a 4x1 collinear array.

III. RESULTS

Computed free space radiation patterns of the collinear array in the azimuth and elevation planes are presented in Figs. 3(a) & (b) respectively. As seen in Fig. 3(a), the array scans the beam maxima from -120 to +120 in the azimuth plane for switching combinations cm#1, cm#2 and cm#3. Peak gain for the three combinations are in the range of 10.5-12.2 dBi with the maximum value occurring for cm#2 (all switches ON). The half power beam width in Fig. 3(a) is 120. In contrast, the half power beam width is only 20 in the elevation plane (Fig. 3(b)). As before, the highest peak gain of 12.2 dBi occurs for cm#2. The peak gain is 10 dBi for other switching combinations. The front to back ratio of the array is 15 dB which can be utilized for exposure reduction in a human body.

B. Next to a Block of Muscle A. In Free Space To investigate the presence of a human body on the The collinear array was simulated in free space using HFSS. performance of the collinear array finite difference time Computed S11 for different switching combinations are shown domain simulations were performed in XFDTD (Remcom in Fig. 2. As seen the array operates within S11 <-15 dB in Inc.). In order to emulate a human trunk a small cylindrical the 5.2 GHz band (5.15-5.35 GHz) for three switching block of muscle was used. Tissue properties at 5.2 GHz were combinations namely, (a) cm#1: Sw1, Sw3, Sw5, Sw7 ON, taken from [14]. The array was placed at a distance of 10 mm others OFF, (b) cm#2: all switches ON and (c) cm#3: Sw2, from the muscle block. The simulation setup is shown in Fig. Sw4, Sw6, Sw8 ON, others OFF. These switching 4. Computed radiation patterns next to the muscle block are combinations enabled three beam steering angles described shown in Figs. 5(a) and (b) for the azimuth and elevation later in this section. planes respectively. Comparing Fig. 5(a) with Fig. 3(a) it can be observed that the beam scanning range next to the muscle block is narrower than that in free space. This happens due to the blockage created by the muscle block. Nevertheless, the S11 peak gain was within 11-12.8 dBi which is slightly higher than the corresponding peak gain in free space. From the elevation plane radiation patterns (Fig. 5(b)) it can be seen that the half power beam width next to the muscle block did not change compared to that in free space. S21 Specific absorption rate (SAR) induced in the muscle block due to the collinear array was also computed using XFDTD. Computed peak 1-g and 10-g average SAR for different
Fig. 2 Computed S11 and S21 magnitudes of the array for different switching combination.

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Muscle

300 mm Z

Y 300 mm (a) X

IV. CONCLUSIONS A collinear parasitic antenna array is proposed for bodycentric communications. The array scans beam maxima both in free space and next to a block of muscle in the azimuth plane. A narrow beamwidth of 20 is achieved in the elevation plane. Using a simple ON/OFF switching scheme of PIN diode switches the array beam maximum can be controlled. A peak gain of 12.8 dBi can be obtained placing the array next to a human body. The array also ensures safe exposure level compliant with regulatory limits. . REFERENCES
[1] [2] N. Rais, P. Soh, F. Malek, S. Ahmad, N. Hashim and P. Hall, A Review of Wearable antenna, Antennas & Propagation Conference, Loughborough, UK, Nov 2009. C. Hertleer, H. Rogier, L. Vallozzi, and L. Van Langenhove, A textile antenna for off-body communication integrated into protective clothing for firefighters, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 919925, Apr. 2009. I. Locher, M. Klemn, T. Kirstein and G. Troster, Design and Characterization of Purely Textile Patch Antennas, IEEE Trans. Adv. Packag, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 777-788, Nov. 2006. L. Vallozzi, P. Torre, C. Hertleer, H. Rogier, M. Moeneclaey and J. Verhaevart, Wireless Communication for Firefighters Using Dual-Polarized Textile Antennas Integrated in Their Garment, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 910918, Apr. 2010. S. Zhu and R. Langley, Dual-Band Wearable Textile Antenna on an EBG Substrate, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 926935, Apr 2009. J. S. Colbum, Y. R. Samii, M. A. Jensen and G. J. Pottie, Evaluation of Personal Communications Dual-Antenna Handset Diversity Performance, IEEE Trans. Vehicular Technol., vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 737-746, Aug. 1998. C. B. Dietrich Jr., K. Dietze, J. R. Nealy and W. L. Stutzman, Spatial, Polarization, and Pattern Diversity for Wireless Handheld Terminals, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat. vol. 49, no. 9, pp. 1271-1281, Sep. 2001. A.T.M. Sayem, S. Khan, and M. Ali, A Miniature Spiral Diversity Antenna System with High Overall Gain Coverage and Low SAR, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, pp. 49-52, vol. 8, 2009. R. F. Harrington, Reactively Controlled Directive Arrays, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 390-395. 1978. R. Schlub, J. Lu and T. Ohira, Seven-Element Ground Skirt Monopole ESPAR Antenna Design From a Genetic Algorithm and the Finite Element Method, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat. vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 3033-3039, Nov. 2003. H. Kawakami and T Ohira, Electrically Steerable Passive Array Radiator (ESPAR) Antennas, IEEE Antennas Propagat.Mag. vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 43-49, Apr. 2005. Md. R. Islam and M. Ali, Elevation Plane Beam Scanning of a Novel ESPAR Antenna for 1900 MHz Mobile Handheld Terminals, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., pp. 3344-3352, Oct. 2010. Md. R. Islam and M. Ali, Switched Parasitic Body-Worn Array for High Data Rate Wireless Applications, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagat. Lett., (in press). Italian National Research Council. Available online: http://niremf.ifac.cnr.it/ International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, ICNIRP statementHealth issues related to the use of hand-held radiotelephones and base transmitters, Health Phys., vol. 70, no. 4, pp. 587593, Apr. 1996.

Y 10 mm 10 mm

[3] [4]

p2, p4, p6 and p8

(b)

p1, p3, p5 and p7 [5] [6]

Fig. 4 (a) Front view and (b) top view of a 4x1 collinear array next to a cylindrical block of muscle.

[7]

[8]

(a)

(b)

[9] [10]

Fig. 5 Computed radiation patterns at 5.2 GHz next to a block of muscle in the (a) azimuth (i.e. XY) plane and (b) elevation (i.e. XZ) plane.

switching combinations are listed in Table-I. All SAR values are normalized to 2 Watt. The lowest 10-g average SAR i.e. 0.46 W/Kg was induced when all switches were ON (cm#2). For cm#1 or cm#3 the peak 10-g average SAR was 1.34 W/Kg. Note that, the maximum allowed peak 10-g SAR for occupational exposure is 10 W/Kg [15]. Since the array is highly directive and its distance from the muscle block was 10 mm (0.16 0) it is reasonable to correlate the induced SAR with the front to back ratio of the array in free space. Thus, the higher SAR for cm#1 or cm#3 compared to that for cm#2 can be attributed to the lower front to back ratio of the array. Note that, in free space the front to back ratio was 15 dB for cm#2 and 12 dB for cm#1 or cm#3.
Table-I: Computed SAR in a block of muscle at 5.2 GHz due to the proposed collinear array. Separation between the muscle block and the array: 10 mm. Frequency Switching Combinations 5.2 GHz 2W cm# 1 cm# 2 (all switches ON) cm# 3 Peak 1-g avg. SAR (W/Kg) 3.33 1.51 3.23 Peak 10-g avg. SAR (W/Kg) 1.34 0.46 1.34

[11] [12]

[13] [14] [15]