Electrically-small folded cylindrical helix antenna for Wireless Body Area Networks

Abstract

The emerging technology of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) is promising for many applications such as continuous, remote, healthcare monitoring. Practical WBAN implementation requires compact low-power devices. Therefore, an electrically-small antenna is needed. This paper presents wearable folded cylindrical helix (FCH) antennas designed at the 433 MHz and the 915 MHz medical frequencies. Their performance is simulated in FEKO software and compared with the conventional monopole. The antenna transmission loss is investigated on a simplified human phantom model. It is found that the FCH has similar transmission performance as the monopole while the height is significantly reduced.