A Cavity-Backed Slot Antenna for On-Body BAN Devices

In this paper, a cavity-backed slot antenna for on-body BAN devices has been investigated. The electric field distributions inside and around the human body are numerically analyzed by the use of the FDTD method. According to the results, in the region on and near the human body, the dominant component of electric field is vertical to the body surface, and the propagation mode is assumed to be creeping wave. On the other hand, in the region inside the human body, dominant component of electric field is horizontal to the body surface, and the propagating direction is almost vertical to the body surface. Furthermore, in order to confirm the validity of the simulated results, measurement of the electric fields around the biological-tissue equivalent phantom was performed. The results showed that the measured and simulated electric fields are agreed well, and indicated validity of the simulation. As a farther study, antenna design will be investigated in view of properties of the BAN system.