IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

5, 2006 377

A Novel Small-Size Printed Tapered Monopole

Antenna for UWB WBAN
Joeri R. Verbiest, Member, IEEE, and Guy A. E. Vandenbosch, Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this letter, a novel antenna topology based on the

printed tapered monopole antenna (PTMA) is investigated in view
of ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless body area network (WBAN) ap-
plications. First, the bandwidth in the presence of a human arm
is studied. Second, the pulse distortion of a modulated Gaussian
pulse is investigated, based on measured 21 -parameters. We ob-
serve that there is a small acceptable influence on the matching of
the antenna and that the pulse distortion is low. The main conclu-
sion is that this modified PTMA is a very good candidate for WBAN
UWB applications.
Index Terms—Ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas, wireless body
area networks (WBANs).

I. INTRODUCTION

R ECENT technological advances in integrated circuits and

wireless communications allow us to build miniature,
lightweight, ultra low-power, intelligently monitoring devices.
Such a device can be integrated into a so-called wireless body
area network (WBAN), a wireless medical sensor system worn
on or placed inside the human body, to monitor and control Fig. 1. PTMA topology.
different medical conditions, [1].
An interesting communication principle is ultra-wideband
Fig. 1 shows the antenna topology, which has maximum di-
(UWB) communication. It is a technique based on transmitting
mensions of 25.0 28.5 1.27 mm (w l h). It is fabri-
ultra short pulses, with a duration of only a few nanoseconds or
less. UWB is a prime candidate for use in WBAN applications, cated on a Rogers RO3210 substrate material with a dielectric
[2]. constant of at 10 GHz. We assume that there are
The antenna is an important element in a communication no losses and that the dielectric constant does not change with
system. In case of UWB it plays a critical role because it can frequency. All the metal parts are simulated as perfect electric
influence the complexity of the receiver and transmitter design, conductors (PEC) with a thickness mm. After an
since they act as a pulse-shaping filter, [3]. UWB antenna de- extensive parametric study, mainly concentrate on the parame-
sign becomes even more challenging in case miniaturization is ters and , and based on the knowledge of this parametric
needed and in the presence of the human body. study an optimization is done. At the end of our design pro-
In this letter, a novel small-size, low-cost, printed monopole is cedure, the final dimensions obtained were: mm,
discussed and its suitability in an UWB WBAN is investigated. mm, mm, mm, mm,
The design described in this letter is based on the planar triangular mm, mm, mm, mm,
monopole [4], which was originally based on the Tab Monopole mm, mm, and mm. All simulations were done
[5]. It yields a smaller antenna with a more wideband behavior. using CST Microwave Studio [6].

II. ANTENNA TOPOLOGY III. PRESENCE OF THE HUMAN BODY

The antenna structure consists of a tapered radiating element
fed by a microstrip line. In our design a slot is added in the
tapered radiating element and in the ground plane, which yields
a wideband behavior with a relatively good matching.
Manuscript received May 2, 2006; revised July 13, 2006. This work was sup-
ported by a Ph.D. grant of the Institute for Promotion through Science and Tech-
nology in Flanders (IWT Vlaanderen).
The authors are with the Electrical Engineering Department (ESAT),
Division of Telecommunications and Microwaves (TELEMIC), Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee (Leuven), Belgium (e-mail: Joeri.Ver-
biest@esat.kuleuven.be).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2006.881920
1536-1225/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
A. Simulations
To investigate the effect of the biological tissue on the
performance of the antenna a simplified model is used. In
reality the human tissue is dispersive, the permittivity and
conductivity change with the frequency. In the used model
the permittivity and conductivity are constant over the total
frequency band, which is a first approximation. The an-
tenna is placed on top of a three-layer tissue model: dry skin
( S/m, [7], mm,
kg/m , [8]), fat (
378 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 5, 2006

Fig. 2. Simulated return loss versus the frequency normalized to 50

, with Fig. 3. Measured return loss versus the frequency normalized to 50
, without
(x) and without (o) the three-layer model. (o) and the average of the measured return loss with (x) the human arm.

S/m [7], mm, kg/m [8]), muscle

( S/m [7],
kg/m [8], ), with dimensions 60 60 mm in the
xy plane. The distance between the bottom of the antenna and
the dry skin is 1.5 mm. The permittivity and conductivity are
given at 5.5 GHz and assumed to be constant over the frequency
range that is investigated.
Fig. 2 shows the return loss as a function of the frequency
with (x) and without (o) the three-layer model. In case no tissue
is present a return loss dB is obtained
between 3.30 and 7.58 GHz. The return loss is dB (VSWR
) between 3.15 GHz and 7.85 GHz. If the 3-layer tissue
model is included the matching becomes worse, a dB return
Fig. 4. Measured magnitude and phase S versus frequency normalized to
loss is obtained between 2.7 GHz and 7.9 GHz. 50
, no arm presence.

B. Measurements
To investigate the effect of the presence of the human arm the
antenna is placed above the arm in the same way as in the simu-
lations. The average return loss is calculated as follows. At three
different positions (wrist, elbow, and shoulder), four measure-
ments are taken, which gives a total of 12 measurements. From
these 12 measurements, the average is taken.
Fig. 3 shows the return loss as a function of frequency without
the arm (o) and an average return loss with the arm (x). In case
no tissue is present, a return loss dB (VSWR ) is ob-
tained between 3.11 and 7.30 GHz. The return loss is
dB (VSWR ) between 2.8 and 7.58 GHz. If the tissue
is present the matching becomes worse, dB is obtained be-
tween 2.8 and 7.5 GHz.

C. Conclusion Fig. 5. Measured magnitude and phase S versus frequency normalized to

50
, in the presence of the arm.
The presence of an arm results in a poorer but still acceptable
matching. It lays below dB, simulated between 2.7 and 7.9
knowledge, completely new. First the impulse response between
GHz and measured between 2.8 and 7.5 GHz.
two PTMAs is measured. The distance between the antennas
is 250 mm (measured from center to center). The measurements
IV. PULSE DISTORTION are performed in a typical lab multipath environment. Figs. 4
A crucial aspect in UWB communications is pulse distortion. and 5 show the measured magnitude of and the variation
This is studied in this letter with an approach, that is, to our in phase, which represents the transfer function of the
VERBIEST et al.: A NOVEL SMALL-SIZE PRINTED TAPERED MONOPOLE ANTENNA 379

Second, using these results and a simple UWB communi-

cation system, Fig. 6, implemented in the Advanced Design
System (ADS) of Agilent [9], the distortion of a Gaussian pulse,
with a spectrum between 3.5 and 4.5 GHz, is studied. Fig. 7
shows the transmitted Gaussian pulse, , and its spectrum
Fig. 6. PTMA UWB communication system. , with a bandwidth of approximately 1 GHz. It is modu-
lated on a carrier, GHz. In this way a UWB pulse , is
obtained with a spectrum . In the receiver we demodulate
the pulse and pass it through a low-pass filter. In this way the
received Gaussian pulse is restored. We observe that the
received pulse has no distortion in case the antenna is not placed
on the human arm. In case the antenna is placed on the arm little
distortion occurs. Based on these observations we can conclude
that both antennas introduce almost no pulse distortion. The dis-
tortion mainly comes from the environment, the human arm, but
is still acceptable.

V. CONCLUSION
In this letter, a novel antenna topology is presented based on
the PTMA. The new design is much smaller and yields a larger
bandwidth. The matching performance and the pulse distortion
of the antenna in the presence of human tissue are studied. With
the human arm, matching becomes a little bit worse but is still
acceptable. Sending a modulated Gaussian UWB pulse is pos-
sible with no distortion in case no arm is present. In the presence
of the arm the distortion is still acceptable.

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