A low profile UWB antenna for wearable applications: The tripod kettle antenna (TKA)

A new low profile ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna for wearable applications is presented. Its structure is derived from the quadripod kettle antenna (QKA) [1], and is called tripod kettle antenna (TKA). The proposed antenna is very well suited for wearable applications due to its miniature size and low profile. Moreover, the antenna is completely encapsulated in a Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate enabling a certain level of flexibility and a good robustness against different external influences (e.g. different weather conditions). The TKA is a broadband antenna with 70% coverage of the fractional UWB bandwidth (Federal Communications Commission, FCC). The antenna has a polarization perpendicular to the body surface with a quasi-omnidirectional radiation pattern in the plane orthogonal to the polarization. An antenna prototype has been built and characterized, and measured results are in a good compliance with the simulations.