Bio-mechanical Antenna

A short-range directional antenna that is mounted onto the user’s skin that overcomes the body’s negative impact on antenna performance.

A low profile body-mounted antenna can offer benefits to a wide variety of users by offering greater freedom of movement, better comfort, and discreetness.

However, to get such antennas to work for‘off body’ communications has so far proved challenging. Antennas worn close to the body are particularly prone to detrimental effects which severely limit their capacity to perform adequately. Absorption and disruption of the antenna’s radiated power result in a decrease in efficiency, a distortion in the radiation pattern, and antenna detuning.

Typically, this problem has been overcome by placing the antenna at a distance from the body, but this is often not practical or desirable.

A new approach, developed and demonstrated by scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), uses the body as part of the antenna design to make low profile body-mounted antennas a reality.

This antenna bridges the gap between the range that is achieved by Bluetooth and traditional radio or 3G/4G solutions.

Benefits

• Low profile – the wearer’s body is used to provide a cavity
  filler and backplate for the antenna, affording the mounted antenna element to be extremely thin.
• Comfort – the design’s small size and weight make it unobtrusive to wear and provides greater freedom of movement.
• Range – distances of up to 1 km can be achieved without the need for additional communications infrastructure.

Applications

• Civil and military communications
• Medical diagnostics / Patient tracking
• Athlete monitoring and performance
• Animal tagging and tracking