A Wearable Active Antenna for Global Positioning System and Satellite Phone

Author

Dierck, Arnaut ; Rogier, Hendrik ; Declercq, Frederick

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf. Technol. (INTEC), Ghent Univ., Ghent, Belgium

Volume

61

Issue

2

fYear

2013

Firstpage

532

Lastpage

538

Abstract

A wearable multiband circularly polarized active antenna is presented for use in Global Positioning System and Iridium satellite phone applications. The square patch antenna is constructed using flexible foam and fabric substrates and conductors etched on thin copper-on-polyimide films. The feed substrate integrates a compact low-noise amplifier chip directly underneath the antenna patch. The antenna performance is studied under bending conditions and in the presence of a human body. The active antenna exhibits a gain higher than 25 dBi and a 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth exceeding 183 MHz in free-space conditions and is robust to bending and on-body placement.

Keywords

Global Positioning System; active antennas; copper; foams; iridium; low noise amplifiers; microstrip antennas; multifrequency antennas; polarisation; satellite antennas; substrates; thin films; wearable antennas; Global Positioning System; axial ratio; fabric substrates; feed substrate; foam substrates; low noise amplifier chip; on-body placement; satellite phone; square patch antenna; thin copper-on-polyimide films; wearable active antenna; wearable multiband circularly polarized active antenna; Antenna measurements; Antenna radiation patterns; Bandwidth; Frequency measurement; Gain; Global Positioning System; Circularly polarized antenna; Global Positioning System; Iridium; dual-band antenna; wearable active antenna;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-926X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TAP.2012.2223441

Filename

6327601