Miniaturized Reconfigurable Wearable Antenna for Dynamic On-Body Wireless Communication

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The emerging technology of wireless body-area networks promises to transform health care for millions of people whose daily lives are severely restricted by chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes. Advances in miniature sensors and wireless communications have opened the possibility for wearable, on-body sensors that remotely and continuously monitor physiological vital signs and transmit alerts to medical caregivers who can intervene in case of impending emergencies. A major hurdle is that the sensors' antennas require relatively large amounts of electrical power to reliably transmit data over extended periods of time during regular daily life. More efficient, optimized antenna designs are needed so that sensor batteries can be small and long-lasting, thereby allowing sensors to be convenient and unobtrusive. To facilitate efficient on-body antenna designs, this project combines experimental and computer modeling methods to study and characterize how electromagnetic waves transmit over and around the moving human body. Insights from analysis of measurement and simulation data guide the design of reconfigurable, wearable antennas that facilitate efficient, on-body wireless communication for continuous, remote health monitoring. The aim of this project is to study on-body electromagnetic wave propagations during human daily activities in order to guide the design of 3-D printed, reconfigurable, wearable antennas for unobtrusive, power-efficient, on-body wireless communications. Both measurement and simulation approaches are utilized in this project: i) three-dimensional body motions and complex electromagnetic transmission characteristics are simultaneously measured during common human activities for various on-body antenna configurations and in various environments; and ii) a three-dimensional modeling framework that reproduces experimental results and predicts wave transmission characteristics is established in electromagnetic simulation software. One key intellectual merit of this approach is relating on-body electromagnetic characteristics to body postures and antenna kinematics. Another key intellectual merit of the proposed work is designing and creating 3-D printed, electrically-small, reconfigurable, wearable antennas that couple radiation power into the dominant propagation mechanism. These advances will transform life-saving on-body communication technologies with applications that benefit patients, public safety officers, soldiers, and astronauts.