Human operator coupling effects on radiation characteristics of a portable communication dipole antenna

EM coupling effects of a human operator on antenna radiation characteristics, such as the antenna input impedance, radiation patterns, the radiation power (into free space), the power absorbed by the body, the radiation efficiency, etc., of a portable communication dipole antenna were investigated in detail. A realistically shaped 3D man model and an approximate linear dipole antenna were used to model this problem. Coupled integral equations (CIE) and the method of moments (MoM) were employed to numerically solve this antenna-body coupling problem. Numerical examples are presented for the antenna located in front of the head (distance ranging from 5 to 1 cm) or adjacent to the abdomen (0.6 cm distance) at 830 MHz. It is found that, when coupled with the operator body, the antenna input impedance will have significant deviation from those in free space and different positions. Due to the operator body absorption effect, the maximum attenuation of the H-plane antenna gain may reach about 15 dB for the antenna at the head position and 25 dB for the abdomen position, toward the direction of the body side. Also, the antenna radiation efficiency is reduced to the range from 0.72 to 0.29 for the head position and 0.15 for the abdomen position, respectively. Moreover, the cross-polarization field is significant, especially in the E plane of φ=90°. This is important for the antenna RF design and communication link budget consideration of portable radio systems