Wearable slot antenna for biomedical applications: Mutual coupling and external interference

Abstract

A small slot antenna has desirable characteristics for radio communications and location of an internal transceiver in-vivo medical applications. The effect of coupling between two identical antennas on the human torso was measured between 2.1 GHz antennas on the skin surface. The effect of an external field was measured as a function of the angle in the horizontal plane to quantify noise isolation. The perimeter separation loss was approximately 0.25 dB/mm. The external radio source induces currents in the soft conducting tissue resulting in a sinc radiation pattern for the antenna/body combination with a front-to-back ratio of approximately 12 dB. As the UHF band is commonly used in many non-medical applications, there is concern that external radio sources can result in a reduced signal to noise ratio and perturbed field strength measurements on the skin.