2011 IEEE International RF and Microwave Conference (RFM 2011), 12th - 14th December 2011, Seremban, Malaysia

Design an Implantable Antenna at 2.45GHz for

Wireless Implantable Body Area Network (WiBAN)
Applications
N.H.Ramli, E.N. Ahyat, M.R. Kamarudin, N.A. Samsuri
Wireless Communication Centre, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Skudai, Johor, Malysia
nhr87@yahoo.com,ezlaahyat@gmail.com,ramlee@fke.utm.my,asmawati@fke.utm.my
is suitable for in body wireless communication applications
at frequency 2.45 GHz respectively.

Abstract The main purpose of this paper is to design

implantable printed antenna in the 2.4-2.5 GHz Industrial,
Scientific and Medical service band for wireless Implantable
body area network (WiBAN) Applications. Two type of
printed antenna which are monopole antenna and loop
antenna are designed by CST Microwave Studio Suite and the
performance of both antenna are evaluated based on gain,
radiation pattern, operating bandwidth and return loss. The
simulation results of this paper presented guideline for
designing an implantable antenna in future.

II.

The printed monopole antenna is composed by a double

metallic layer and single substrate layer. A copper with
0.036mm thickness is used as a metallic layer and its
printed on both surface of the FR4 substrate. The FR4
dielectric constant is r= 4.7, loss tangent of 0.019 and
thickness of 1.6mm.
Fig. 1 shows the optimum
configuration of the proposed antenna design, respectively.
Generally, the size of the antenna is 30 30 1.6mm. The
radiating element of the antenna consists of ring shape with
stub and fed line. The radius for the outer ring is 7.7 mm
while for the inner is 6 mm. The length of the stub is 12
mm and width of 1.2 mm. The radiator is fed by microstrip
line with length 14 mm and width 4 mm which is located at
the centre of the antenna. The dimension for half ground
plane is 30 5 mm.

Keywords-component; Body Area Network; monopole antenna;

loop antenna; gain; return loss; operating bandwidth

I.

INTRODUCTION

Since the technology continues to develop, wireless

systems also become advanced. The changes of technology
give benefits in human body communication. In Body
Wireless Communication is a latest technology of mobile
communication system that provides an advantage to health
care and personal systems [1]. Designing implantable
antenna is quiet challenging due to the effect of lossy
environment, necessity of small size and low power
consumption and consequence of multipath losses. Thus
compact, small size and better performance are required for
an antenna to operate at such systems [2]-[8].

La
b
c
a

Based on the previous research, printed monopole

antenna and printed loop antenna has become major field
of interest since it has its own advantages such as compact,
small size, omni directional radiation patterns, large
bandwidth and high radiation efficiency [9]-[18].

Lb
d

In this paper, two type of antenna which are printed

monopole antenna and printed loop antenna were designed
and simulated in order to compare their performance. The
radiating element of the monopole antenna consists of ring
shape with stub and fed line while half ground plane at
opposite surface. Whereas the radiating element of the loop
antenna consists of ring shape connected to the ground on
the same surface. Simulation results presented that both
antenna are show good performance and hence the antenna

978-1-4577-1631-7/$26.00 2011 IEEE

ANTENNA DESIGN AND CONFIGURATION

Lc

Figure 1. Configuration of the proposed monopole antenna design

.
The printed loop antenna is comprised for a single
metallic layer and single substrate layer. Similar with the
monopole antenna, a copper with 0.036mm thickness is

329

2011 IEEE International RF and Microwave Conference (RFM 2011), 12th - 14th December 2011, Seremban, Malaysia

used as a metallic layer and its printed only on one side

surface of the FR4 substrate. Fig. 2 illustrates the
configuration of the proposed loop antenna design,
respectively. After overall adjustment, the size of the
proposed loop antenna is 20 20 1.6mm. The radiating
element of the antenna consists of ring shape connected to
the ground. The radius for the outer ring is 5 mm while for
the inner is 2.2 mm. The length of the ground is 11.5 mm
and width of 8.5 mm for right side and 7.1mm for left side.
The radiator is fed by microstrip line which is located at the
centre of the antenna.
b)

Figure 3. The model used for antenna simulation a) Printed loop antenna
b) Printed monopole antenna

III.

Figure 2. Configuration of the proposed loop antenna design

Since both antenna are designed for embedded

application, so the proposed antenna is implanted into
simplified biological tissue model for human breast. The
dielectric constant of human breast tissue is r = 2.5 and
conductivity, = 0.04 while the dimension of biological
model is 130 mm 50 mm 30 mm. The position of the
antenna is tested at certain distance from the bottom of the
tissue model up to the surface of tissue model. Fig. 3 shows
the model used for antenna simulation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Both of the proposed antennas is simulated by using

CST Microwave Studio and the performance of antenna is
evaluated based on gain, radiation pattern, return loss and
operating bandwidth. According to the proposed monopole
antenna design, the function of stub is to adjust the
impedance matching and tuned the resonant frequency to
lower frequency. Therefore, the size of the antenna is
reduced for the given frequency.
Modification of the
geometrical parameters has also done in order to enhance
impedance matching bandwidth. The performance of the
antenna is satisfactory and presented good results. So the
optimized dimensions for the monopole antenna are: La =
30mm, Lb = 30mm, Lc = 14mm, Ra = 7.7mm, Rb = 6mm, a=
12mm, b= 4mm and c= 5mm. While for the proposed loop
antenna design, the length of microstrip line must below
43mm in order to tune the resonant frequency to 2.42.5GHz. Adjustment and modification also has been done
for enhance impedance matching bandwidth and thus the
optimized dimensions for the loop antenna are: a= 20mm,
b= 20mm, c= 11.5mm, d= 2.6mm, e= 5mm, f= 2.2mm, g=
9mm and h= 7.1mm.
Fig. 4 shows comparison of return loss between printed
monopole antenna and printed loop antenna in the free
space environment. As illustrated in the figure, the
proposed monopole antenna has an impedance bandwidth
of 400 MHz (2.4-2.8 GHz) while the proposed loop
antenna has very narrow impedance bandwidth of 10MHz
(2.48-2.49 GHz). The monopole antenna has a gain of
2.4dBi while 4.8dBi for loop antenna. Results show that
printed monopole antenna provides higher impedance
bandwidth while printed loop antenna provides higher gain.
This specified that the proposed monopole antenna and
loop antenna is able to work at from frequency 2.4 GHz to
2.8 GHz and 2.48GHz for standard wireless
communication. . Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 shows the simulated farfield radiation patterns for E-plane and H-plane for both
proposed antenna at frequency 2.45GHz. The simulated
results show that the radiation patterns of both antenna is
bidirectional in the E-plane (but different direction) while
omni directional in the H-plane.

a)

330

2011 IEEE International RF and Microwave Conference (RFM 2011), 12th - 14th December 2011, Seremban, Malaysia

a)
Figure 4. Comparison of return loss between printed monopole antenna
and printed loop antenna in the free space environment

b)
a)

Figure 6. Radiation pattern for printed monopole antenna a) E plane

b) H -plane

b)

Figure 5. Radiation pattern for printed loop antenna a) E plane b) H plane

331

Fig. 7 shows the comparison of return loss when

antennas are implanted into simplified human breast model.
Both of simulation result is excited at 2.45GHz with a 10dB impedance bandwidth of 500MHz (2.2-2.7GHz) for
monopole antenna whilst 30MHz (2.43-2.46GHz) for loop
antenna. The gain of the monopole antenna and loop
antenna is 3.4dBi and 3.8dBi at frequency 2.45GHz. The
resonant frequency and gain of the implantable antenna is
reduced due to the effect of the human breast tissue. Similar
with the free space environment, monopole antenna
provides higher impedance bandwidth and loop antenna
offered high gain. This indicates that both implantable
antennas can operate at 2.45 GHz for in body wireless
communication.

2011 IEEE International RF and Microwave Conference (RFM 2011), 12th - 14th December 2011, Seremban, Malaysia

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Figure 7. Comparison of return loss when antennas are implanted into

simplified human breast model

IV.

CONCLUSION

A small printed monopole and loop antenna has been

presented and implemented for narrowband application. By
adding stub (for monopole antenna) and general adjustment
of the geometrical parameters, the proposed printed
monopole and loop antenna was successfully designed to
operate at unlicensed Industrial, Scientific and Medical
service band for standard and in body wireless
communication. The total dimension of the proposed
printed monopole antenna is 30301.6 mm and achieved
impedance bandwidth of 400MHz while for printed loop
antenna, the total dimension is 20 20 1.6mm and
achieved impedance bandwidth of 10MHz. Both antennas
are shown similar radiation pattern for Eplane and H
plane but at different direction so its suitable for different
application. The physically small size and good quality
performance leads the proposed antenna appropriate to be
applied in wireless commutation system.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the Government of
Malaysia, Ministry of Higher Education (My Brain 15) and
FRGS (Vot 78576) grant for the funding that enables this
work to be accomplished and also special thanks to the
members of Wireless Communication Centre (WCC),
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia for their helps and kindness.
REFERENCES
[1] Hall, P S and Hao, Y, (eds), Antennas and Propogation for
Body Centric Wireless
Communications, (Artech House
Boston/London, 2006).
[2] Pichitpong Soontornpipit,Cynthia M.Furse,You Chung Chung
Design of Implantable
Microstrip Antenna for
Communication
with
Medical
Implants,
IEEE

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