EFFECTS OF HUMAN BODY INTERFERENCE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A GPS ANTENNA

M. Ur Rehman*, Y. Gao*, X. Chen*, C.G. Parini*& Z.Ying t *Queen Mary, University of London (UK), m o t Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Lund, Sweden
characterization of human body effects on GPS antenna performance, a simple truncated corners microstrip patch antenna is used in this study. The antenna works in the LI Abstract band and is well capable of handling the Right Hand Global Positioning System (GPS) provides navigation and Circularly Polarized (RHCP) GPS signals. positioning services to millions of users worldwide. Evolution of GPS mobile receivers added to its popularity and made it This study is carried out in two stages. First, the antenna an essential element of Wireless Body Area Networks performance is analyzed in free space. Second, the effects of (WBAN) and Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN). the presence of a single layer human body model in the Human body is the integral part of such applications and vicinity of the antenna are studied. The performance of the affects their performance. This paper investigates the effects antenna is analyzed by considering different separations of human body on the performance of a GPS antenna in LI between the body and the antenna, different positions of the frequency band considering various antenna-body antenna on the body and different orientations of the human separations, different antenna positions on the body and arm. The degrading effects are characterized by making a various body postures. These effects are studied and analysed comparison of the antenna performance in free space and in via electromagnetic simulations. presence of the human body.
Keywords: Wireless, GPS, Body interference, On-body

1 Introduction
Global Positioning System (GPS) is currently the only fully operational system that delivers the navigation and positioning services worldwide. A number of applications make use of GPS to provide positioning, geographic surveys, mapping, weather and atmospheric information, public safety and surveillance. By determining the position of, and distance to at least three satellites, the GPS receiver can compute its position. Two frequency bands LI (1575.42MHz) and L2 (1227.60MHz) are used for the commercially available GPS.

2 GPS antenna performance in free space

Antenna is an important part of a GPS receiver. Design of a GPS antenna is a complex task as it should fulfil multiple requirements including the capability of handling the CP waves [3], uniform radiation pattern over the entire upper hemisphere to ensure that all visible satellites can maintain signal lock [4] and a good rejection of LHCP with no back lobes to eliminate the multipath effects [3].

A number of antennas reported in the literature are capable to support the GPS operation. However, a simple GPS antenna Introduction of GPS enabled mobile receivers added to its of truncated corner microstrip patch type is opted [5] for this demand and made it an essential element of Wireless Body study as the main purpose of this study is to analyze the Area Networks (WBAN) and Wireless Personal Area effects of human body on the antenna performance. The Networks (WPAN) that have human body as a principle antenna has a ground plane of 100mm x100mm and a square element. Human body affects the performance of these radiating patch of 53.4mmx53.4mm. A substrate of 1.524mm applications and especially the antennas in three ways: thickness and =3 is used. Figure 1 shows the geometry of the reduction in efficiency due to electromagnetic absorption in antenna. the tissues, degradation of the radiation pattern and variation in the feed point impedance [1]. Characterization of these Antenna performance is analyzed via simulations and it is effects is a challenging but necessary task to overcome these observed that the designed antenna works well in LI band performance degradations. fulfilling all the requirements listed above. The return loss curve shown in Figure 2 depicts a strong resonance at This paper investigates the effects of human body on the 1575.42MHz with -OdB bandwidth of 19.27MHz covering performance of a GPS antenna. These effects are studied and all the frequencies in the range of 1565MHz to 1585VMz. analysed via electromagnetic simulations using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave StudioR package Since, the microstrip patch antenna radiates normal to its that uses Finite Integration Technique (FIT) for the numerical patch surface, the radiation patterns for p=00 (xz-plane) and modelling [2]. Since, the main area of interest is p=900 (yz-plane) are of importance.

t6

of the presence of human body on the GPS receiver antenna are studied for different test set-ups considering different separations of the body and the antenna, different positions of the antenna on the body and different body postures as shown in Figure 4.

Il L

Figure 1: Geometry of the patch antenna for GPS Figure 3(a) shows the RHCP and LHCP radiation patterns for xz-plane while Figure 3(b) shows the RHCP and LHCP
--

30mm

40rnfti

rying distatices aloi

tije, Ohest

GPS Ahtenna with

700rcim

-12

-------

^--------

-------

--------------^--Fl I-----------------------'--I
,_ _ _, __ _

--

1 -E

-I

_.-------,-------,-------------

-r-raito patm fo yzpln at 157542MH. --rThs resultsnonfinn~~~~~~~~~~ tathaneawrigiexelnfoGP opertio wit goo RHC an a sml bac sid raitino ore -2dB

Figure 4: Different test set-ups for GPS antenna

3.2 Varying antenna-body separation along chest
In this section, human body effects on the antenna performance are studied by varying the distance along the chest. Four values of the gape, Omm, 20mm, 30mm and 40mm are considered as illustrated in Figure 4(a). Figures 5-7 provide a comparison of the antenna performance in free space and in the presence of human body at these separations.

th1set-u (d) GPS a 4n :a With ai ( bieaded3 arm antenlna at cliest

)GPS a nena ith viaryiiig posi tios on b>odyC

'''

T--

NNNJ

t,

-----

RHCP LHCP
F,.q,.ercy (1Hz,)

(a) xz (b) yz Figure 3: Simulated radiation patterns for GPS antenna

Figure 5: Comparison of simulated return loss for various antenna-body separations along the chest
resonance

The return loss curves in Figure 5 show a shift in the frequency from 1575.42MHz to 155 1MHz that remains the same for all the gapes. It is a result of the 3.1 Human body modelling impedance mismatch due to the presence of human body. The A single layer human body model for an average built with a -lOdB impedance bandwidth stays at 19.27MHz for all the height of 1700mm is designed in CST Microwave StudioR cases but the resonance strength differs for various considering the tissue with a permittivity of 28.1552 and separations. Antenna placed at d=20mm has the strongest conductivity of 1.13667S/m which are 2/3 of the muscle resonance. permittivity and conductivity [6]. For higher accuracy and reduced simulation time, mesh subgriding is used [2]. Effects Figures 6-7 compare the RHCP & LHCP radiation patterns in

3 Human body effects

on

the GPS antenna

free space and in the presence of human body at varying gaps along the chest. These results confirm that the presence of human body causes serious distortion in the radiation patterns in both planes. From Figure 7shows that LHCP is affected more in xz-plane while RHCP yz-plane has more significant distortions in yz-plane.
Rth. Sp...
N
.

B,Ily

Figure 8: Comparison of simulated return loss for different antenna positions on-body
both right and left side positions but antemna is detuned to a large extent when placed near the belly with even larger shift and appearance of a second resonance at 1827MHz.
Free Space d=Cif

(a) xz (b) yz Figure 6: Comparison of RHCP radiation patterns for various antenna-body separations along the chest
It is due to the fact that the height of the torso is larger than the width as shown in Figure 4. This causes the radiation pattern to be distorted much more in yz-plane than in xz-plane due to bulk power absorption, increase in effective antenna length, difference in dielectrics and reflections from the body surface.
270 11 9 0

2700

<

t90

180

160 150 -Free Sparce

210

50

N~ ear Chestl
P$glht Si}de
4arEet

i80

Kj
Q - R

(a) xz (b) yz Figure 9: Comparison of RHCP radiation patterns for different antenna positions on-body
Radiation patterns shown in Figures 9-10 confirm that the radiation characteristics of the antenna are also affected much due to varying positions. Degradation of the pattern is almost as observed in the varying distances case except the number of back lobes that are maximal for the near belly case.
4

Lefte -E dr ff Side

2r X0 2?9
...,

30 330

330

30

(b) yz (a) xz Figure 7: Comparison of LHCP radiation patterns for various antenna-body separations along the chest
3.3 Varying antenna positions on the body
Human body effects on the GPS antenna performance are also studied by placing the antenna at different positions on-body while maintaining a gape of 10mm between the antenna and the body to allow the covering assembly clearance. Results are obtained for antenna in front of the chest, moving it to the extreme right side, placing it to the extreme left side and also by placing it near the belly. These results are compared to the ones with antenna in free space.
The return loss curves in Figure 8 depict that resonance shifts from 1575.42MHz to lower frequencies depending upon the placement of the antenna on the body. Shift is the same for

_I

270X

270

90

~ ] (a) xz (b) yz Figure 10: Comparison of LHCP radiation patters for different antenna positions on-body
3.4 Antenna held in left hand
In this section, human body effects on the antenna performance are studied by modifying the human body model

in such a way that the antenna is held in the left hand of the

Radiation patterns shown in Figure 12-13 confirm that the radiation characteristics of the antenna are affected much due to the presence of human body. However, degradation of the pattern is almost the same for both the bending angles.
-------

41 --,---------

--------------- I-- -- -

tI-g--------------e-------

--

----r----

-- -- -- - ---------------------

Conclusions

It is evident that the presence of the human body causes resonance shift and serious distortion in the radiation patterns 1400 1500 1600 Frecluencry (M1Hz) in both planes. RHCP is affected more in yz-plane while LHCP is degraded much in xz-plane. It is due to the fact that Figure 11: Comparison of simulated return loss for hand-held the height and width of the torso in two planes is different. GPS antenna configurations Height is larger than the width that causes more distortion in the radiation pattern in yz-plane as antenna experiences more body. Two different bending angles of the analyzed that increases the separation between the body and the presence of human body than in xz-plane. Lower gain of LHCP also makes it more vulnerable to distortions in xzantenna from 190mm to 350mm. plane as compared to RHCP. It is also shown that the antenna-body separation, position of the antenna on the body and posture of the human body all affects the antenna performance in one way or another.
1000 1100 1200 1300 1700 1800 1900 2000
arm are

References
[1] Wang, Z., Chen, X. and Parini, C.G., "Effects of the Ground and the Human Body on the Performance of a Handset Antenna", IEE Proc. Micr. & Antenna Prop., Vol. 151, No. 2, 2004 [2] CST Microwave StudioR 2006 User Manual [3] Boccia, L., Amendola, G. and DiMassa, G., "Design of High Precision Antennas for GPS', Penton Media Inc., 2004 [4] Thiagaraja, S., Ali, B.M. and Habaebi, M.H.., "Circular Polarized Active Microstrip Antenna for Commercial GPS Application", IEEE Proc. TENCON 2000, Vol.1 [5] Niroojazi, M. & Azarmanesh, M.N., "Practical Design of Single Feed Truncated Corner Microstrip Antenna", IEEE Proc. CNSR 2004 [6] Gabriel, C., "Compilation of the Dielectric Properties of Body Tissues at RF and Microwave Frequencies ", Brooks Air Force Technical Report, AL/OE-TR- 19960037, 1996

80o

Free

Space

i80

-----d=190 ---- d=360

(a) xz (b) yz Figure 12: Comparison of RHCP radiation patterns for handheld GPS antenna configurations

The return loss curves in Figure 11 compares the antenna performance in free space to the hand-held antenna configurations. It is evident that the resonance frequency is shifted from 1575.42MHz to 1552MHz that remains the same for both the bending angles. Although, -IOdB bandwidth is not changed, strength of the resonance is decreased for wider bending angle (d=350mm).

Figure 13: Comparison of LHCP radiation patterns for handheld GPS antenna configurations

(a) xz

(b) yz