Increase of input resistance of a normal-mode helical antenna (NMHA) in human body application

• Published in: Sensors (Switzerland)
• Main Author: Zainudin N.; Latef T.A.; Aridas N.K.; Yamada Y.; Kamardin K.; Rahman N.H.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85079336368&doi=10.3390%2fs20040958&partnerID=40&md5=101d77304c0d2f00f7aa4bc1aa3a1c80

In recent years, the development of healthcare monitoring devices requires high performance and compact in-body sensor antennas. A normal-mode helical antenna (NMHA) is one of the most suitable candidates that meets the criteria, especially with the ability to achieve high efficiency when the antenna structure is in self-resonant mode. It was reported that when the antenna was placed in a human body, the antenna efficiency was decreased due to the increase of its input resistance (Rin). However, the reason for Rin increase was not clarified. In this paper, the increase of Rin is ensured through experiments and the physical reasons are validated through electromagnetic simulations. In the simulation, the Rin is calculated by placing the NMHA inside a human’s stomach, skin and fat. The dependency of Rin to conductivity (σ) is significant. Through current distribution calculation, it is verified that the reason of the increase in Rin is due to the decrease of antenna current. The effects of Rin to bandwidth (BW) and electrical field are also numerically clarified. Furthermore, by using the fabricated human body phantom, the measured Rin and bandwidth are also obtained. From the good agreement between the measured and simulated results, the condition of Rin increment is clarified. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.