Design, fabrication and test of a novel single-band
wearable antenna with dual-mode operation (on-body and
off-body) for Body Area Network’s applications in the 2.45 GHz
Industrial Scientific and Medical band is presented. The on-body
mode is achieved with a microstrip ring while the off-body mode
is obtained with a compact meandered microstrip patch placed
inside the ring. The two antennas are fed separately but share a
common ground plane and use only fabric materials facilitating
the integration into the user’s clothes. The antenna operation is
characterized when placed on a phantom mimicking a human
torso. Input match, mutual coupling, radiation pattern, radiation
efficiency and path loss measurements are presented and show
good agreement with simulations.