848 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 20, NO.

5, MAY 2021

A Wideband Circular Polarization Implantable

Antenna for Health Monitor Microsystem
Ruipeng Liu, Kanglong Zhang , Student Member, IEEE, Ziwei Li , Wenjie Cui, Student Member, IEEE,
Weibo Liang, Mengjun Wang , Chao Fan , Hongxing Zheng , Senior Member, IEEE,
and Erping Li , Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—A compact implantable antenna is proposed for wire-

less health monitor microsystem, which is operated in frequency
of the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band. A circular
radiator is cut four L-shaped slots and loading a shortpin be-
tween the radiator and ground plane to implement the circular
polarization. Two crossed rectangle slots are etched on the ground
plane so that the impedance and axial ratio (AR) bandwidths have
been expanded at the same time. In addition, to further verify
the performance of the antenna for biomedical application, we
simulate a microsystem that monitors human health; and establish
the simulation environment of the human heart and head. Then, we
evaluated the performance of the microsystem in the human tissue
Fig. 1. Schematic of the implantable antenna applied to health monitor mi-
simulation environment. The maximum specific absorption rate crosystem and structure detail.
value satisfies the IEEE standard safety guidelines. The experiment
results indicate that the impedance and AR bandwidths of proposed
antenna are 2.25–2.78 GHz and 2.32–2.63 GHz, respectively. The
total dimensions of π × 42 × 1.27 mm3 are obtained, which solved effectively. To achieve wider bandwidth, some methods
is equivalent to π × 0.032λ0 2 × 0.0102λ0 (λ0 is the free-space such as split-ring resonators [5], the inner and outer loop on the
wavelength at 2.4 GHz). This compact size is very suitable for the substrate [6], defective ground structure, and serpentine shape
application in health monitoring microsystem. on the radiation patch [7], etc., have been used. Though one has
Index Terms—Circularly polarization, health monitor improved the impedance bandwidth, the position of the linearly
microsystem, implantable antenna, wideband. polarized antenna will change with the movement of human
body, which may affect efficiency of the antenna. The circularly
polarization (CP) can perfectly solve this problem [8]–[11]. To
I. INTRODUCTION improve the axial ratio (AR) of the CP antenna, the bandwidth
covers a reasonable range by adjusting the position of coaxial
OWADAYS, with wireless communication and electron-
N ics technologies developing rapidly, more and more mi-
crosystems can be applied to mobile medical equipment. The
feed and then a shortpin added [9]. Besides, CP can also be
achieved by introducing a pair of perturbation elements [8], [10].
Other methods, such as annular slot and shortpin introduced
implantable antenna plays an important role in mobile medical
on the microstrip antenna [12] and dual open stubs put into
devices [1], [2]. To find satisfied size of the antenna, slots
the annular ring radiator inside [13] have been used, which can
on the radiation patch were used [3], [4]. On the other hand,
improve the CP performance.
human tissue is a complex electromagnetic environment that can
In this letter, we proposed a compact structure to increase
decrease the antenna operating bandwidth. This problem must be
the AR bandwidth of implantable antenna, which is operated
in the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band for the
Manuscript received February 9, 2021; accepted March 7, 2021. Date of human health monitor microsystem, as shown in Fig. 1. The
publication March 11, 2021; date of current version May 5, 2021. This work
was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant
miniaturization is achieved with four L-shaped slots on the
62071166 and by the Key Project of Hebei Province Natural Science Foundation radiator and a shortpin between radiator and ground. Especially,
and Grant F2017202283. (Corresponding author: Hongxing Zheng.) two crossed rectangular slots etched on the ground plane, wider
Ruipeng Liu, Kanglong Zhang, Ziwei Li, Wenjie Cui, Weibo Liang, Mengjun impedance, and AR bandwidths have been implemented. To
Wang, Chao Fan, and Hongxing Zheng are with the State Key Labora- check the performance of antenna, we constructed the simulation
tory of Reliability and Intelligence of Electrical Equipment, Hebei Uni-
versity of Technology, Tianjin 300132, China, and also with the School model of skin, heart, and head tissue environment. The measured
of Electronics and Information Engineering, Hebei University of Technol- results have shown the antenna available.
ogy, Tianjin 300401, China (e-mail: liurpliu@163.com; zhangkanglong@yeah.
net; li_ziwei@163.com; wjcui_dreiver@163.com; wbliang@foxmail.com;
wangmengjun@hebut.edu.cn; fanch@hebut.edu.cn; hxzheng@hebut.edu.cn). II. ANTENNA DESIGN
Erping Li is with the State Key Laboratory of Reliability and Intelligence of
Electrical Equipment, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300132, China, A. Schematic Structure Design
and also with the Zhejiang University-UIUC Institute, Zhejiang University,
Haining 314400, China (e-mail: liep@zju.edu.cn). The overall antenna structure is exhibited in Fig. 2; and
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3065445 biocompatible material has to be used. To reduce the dimension

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LIU et al.: WIDEBAND CIRCULAR POLARIZATION IMPLANTABLE ANTENNA FOR HEALTH MONITOR MICROSYSTEM
Fig. 2. Structure and dimension views of proposed antenna. (a) Radiation
patch with open 4-slots. (b) Ground plane with two crossed rectangles. (c) Side
view, symmetric shortpin, and coaxial-fed port.
TABLE I
SIMULATION OF ANTENNA STRUCTURE CHANGED PROCESS
Fig. 3. Simulation results of the antenna structure changed process in four
cases in Table I. (a) |S11 |. (b) AR. Especially, in case (d), both impedance and
the AR bandwidths covered ISM band.
size and attain miniaturization, the higher dielectric constant
materials are used for the substrate and superstrate. The radiation
patch and ground plane are on the substrate both sides. The patch
cover with superstrate can protect itself and avoid contact with
the human tissue. Since the symmetrical layout can easily result
in circular polarization, four L-shaped slots of the same size with
rounding type are cut at the radiation patch. To further extend
the impendence and AR bandwidths, the ground plane is slotted
with two crossed rectangles. Also, the 50 Ω coaxial located at
(S, T) is adopted to excite the antenna; and a shortpin, symmetric
to the feed point is added between radiator and ground plane to
achieve the antenna with CP property.
To check our design, there are four cases in our consideration,
as listed in the Table I. From case (a) to (d), each column
indicates the original antenna structure with full metal surface,
added shortpin, radiator with four L-shaped slots of the same
size arranged in a rounding type with the same shortpin, and
two crossed rectangles on the ground plane. Here, the Rogers
3010 (εr = 10.2, tan δ = 0.001) with thickness of 0.635 mm is
used as the substrate and superstrate layers. Simulated |S11 | and
AR results have been obtained, as shown in Fig. 3.
From Fig. 3, the impendence and AR bandwidths of the
case (a) do not meet the requirements. When the shortpin is
used, the resonance frequency appears near 2 GHz in case (b).
Then, the center frequency of the case (c) is shifted to 2.6 GHz
and the impendence bandwidth can cover the ISM band, but
the CP antenna is still not perfect. Fortunately, two crossed
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849
Fig. 4. Antenna embedded in single skin model and the simulation results.
(a) Antenna simulation environment. (b) Simulated |S11 | and AR.
Fig. 5. Antenna performance with different size of W1 and W2 . (a) |S11 | and
(b) AR with different size of W1 . (c) |S11 | and (d) AR with different size of W2 .
rectangles are etched on the ground plane in the last case, the
center frequency moved to around 2.4 GHz. Both the impedance
and AR bandwidths are covered the ISM band. With this novel
improvement, perfect result has been earned finally.
B. Antenna Simulation in Skin Model
We have to consider the working environment because the
proposed antenna is worked inside of the human tissue. First, a
single layer of human skin model is designed for the simulation,
as shown in Fig. 4(a). Without generality, we treat the local skin
model as a box with 100 × 100 × 100 mm3 in size, and with
dielectric parameters, εr = 42.85 and σ = 1.59 S/m. The antenna
is embedded into the skin model in depth of 4 mm, |S11 | and AR
are simulated, as depicted in Fig. 4(b). Results are indicated
the impedance and AR bandwidths to be 2.28–2.68 GHz and
2.16–2.7 GHz, respectively.
To evaluate the stability of the propose antenna in the skin
model, the influence of critical sizes, such as the W1 of the
L-shaped slots shown in Fig. 2(a) and the W2 of crossed retangles
shown in Fig. 2(b), are explored in detail. First, we performed a
scan on the width of W1 from 0.2 to 0.8 mm; the impedance
and AR bandwidths are presented in Fig. 5(a) and (b). We
can observe them covering the ISM band but for defectiveness
when W1 = 0.2 mm. Then, we scan on the W2 from 0.22 to
0.52 mm and obtain the both bandwidths, as shown in Fig. 5(c)
and (d). The frequency can cover the ISM band, and center
frequency tends to 2.4 GHz. With change of W1 and W2 , the
impedance and AR bandwidths are covered 2.28–2.68 GHz
and 2.16–2.7GHz, respectively, which is indicated the proposed
antenna with better stability. Selected demension sizes are listed
in Table II according to these simulations.
850 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 20, NO. 5, MAY 2021

TABLE II
DIMENSION SIZE OF PROPOSED ANTENNA

Fig. 8. System in simulation model and the simulated results. (a) System in
the human heart tissue simulation model. (b) Simulated |S11 | and AR.

Fig. 6. Three-dimensional view, top view, and side view of the microsystem
model.

Fig. 9. System in simulation model and the simulated results. (a) System in
the human head tissue simulation model. (b) Simulated |S11 | and AR.

Fig. 7. Microsystem in the single skin simulation model and simulation results.
(a) Simulation environment. (b) Simulated |S11 | and AR.

TABLE III
COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS WORKS (IN 2.4 GHZ)

Fig. 10. LHCP and RHCP of the antenna and microsystem in xoz and yoz
planes.

C. Antenna Simulation in Microsystem Structure Model

To verify the proposed antenna worked in the microsystem, a
model that can be used for monitoring human body health is built
up, including in printed circuit board, microelectronic chip, data
management block, antenna and battery as shown in Fig. 6. The
button battery model can be chosen as SR416SW with diameter
4.8 mm, and memory port used as a data management. The
Rogers 3010 with thickness 0.1 mm is used for the antenna. The
total system is 15 × 9 × 1.6 mm3 in size.
Then, we put this system model into the single skin model
with 4 mm depth, as shown in Fig. 7(a). The simulated results
are displayed in Fig. 7(b). Bandwidth of the |S11 | is covered
2.3–2.69 GHz, and the AR bandwidth is stepped over 2.28–
2.75 GHz. Therefore, the proposed implantable antenna is ex-
hibited a better CP performance.
D. Analysis of the Microsystem in Heart and on Head Models
To verify the performance of the proposed microsystem in
the complex human tissue environment, a heart simulation envi-
ronment composed of the skin, fat, muscle, and the heart based
on the heart tissue is constructed, part of which is displayed in
Fig. 8. The thickness of the skin, fat, and muscle layers and
the radius of the heart are defined as 20, 20, 100, and 30 mm,
respectively. Simulated results show that the relative impedance
Fig. 11. Current distribution on radiation patch and GND (unit: A/m).
and AR bandwidths are 15.9% and 18%, respectively, indicating
the system has a better wideband performance. Then, another
spherical simulation environment is constructed to simulate
the human head as shown in Fig. 9, which is composed of
the gray and white matter, endocranium, skull, and skin. The
simulated results show that the system has a sufficiently wide
impedance bandwidth of 2.3–2.7 GHz and AR bandwidth of
2.25–2.62 GHz, respectively.
The left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right-hand
circular polarization (RHCP) results of the antenna and system
in single skin layer model are obtained, as shown in Fig. 10
with system in heart and head models. From the figure, the
main polarization is RHCP, and cross polarization is LHCP. The
currents distribution on the radiator and ground plane is shown
in Fig. 11. When the excited phase is 0° and 180°, the stronger

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LIU et al.: WIDEBAND CIRCULAR POLARIZATION IMPLANTABLE ANTENNA FOR HEALTH MONITOR MICROSYSTEM
TABLE IV
PERFORMANCE AND SAR OF THE ANTENNA AND MICROSYSTEM IN FOUR PHANTOMS
Fig. 12. SAR of the antenna and system in simulation model, (unit: W/kg).
(a) System in heart simulated model. (b) System in head simulated model.
currents concentrate at the feed of the radiation patch. When the
excited phase is 90° and 270°, the current distribution at the gap
of the two left slots is stronger. Similarly, on the ground plane,
the stronger current concentrates at the feed port and the left
rectangle slot. By analyzing the LHCP, RHCP, and the current
distribution, we can conclude that the antenna can achieve the
better CP performance.
Finally, the results are compared between the proposed an-
tenna and the reference CP implantable antennas in 2.4 GHz for
the ISM band, as shown in Table III. The structure of previous
works is using coaxial feed, adding shortpin, and using full
ground. This design differs from the previous works is that it
uses defected ground plane, which is beneficial to expend the
AR bandwidth. The peak gain and radiation efficiency of the
proposed antenna are −37.36 dBi and 0.21%, respectively. It is
clear that the proposed CP implantable antenna has compact in
size, wide impedance, and AR bandwidths.
E. Analysis the SAR and Gain of Antenna
For the implantable antenna, the safety problem should be
considered, where the specific absorption rate (SAR) is usually
regarded as the evaluation standard [14], [15]. Fig. 12 displays
the SAR include microsystem in the heart and head simulation
model. Table IV shows the bandwidth performance, realized
gain, and the SAR of the antenna and system in the different
simulation model. Assuming that the transmitter power of the
antenna is 1 W, the maximum SAR of the antenna in single skin
model is 856.45 W/kg. Therefore, the max transmitter power
should be less to 1.868 mW.
III. MEASUREMENT RESULTS ANALYSIS
According to the dimension in Table II, we fabricated the
proposed antenna using Rogers 3010 substrate. The minced
pork, and the skin-mimicking gel are used to measured envi-
ronment. The skin-mimicking gel is composed of deionized
water (58.2%), Triton X-100 (36.7%), and diethylene glycol
butyl ether (5.1%). Fig. 13(a) displays that the measured results
in minced pork can cover 2.25–2.78 GHz; and the measured
|S11 | results in skin-mimicking gel generate another resonant
frequency because the dielectric properties of the measurement
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851
Fig. 13. Measured results. (a) |S11 |. (b) AR.
Fig. 14. (a) Antenna in the microwave anechoic chamber. (b) Measured RHCP
and LHCP.
do not coincide exactly with the simulation, but the wideband
performance can be verified. Fig. 13(b) depicts the measured AR
bandwidth, which could cover 2.4–2.7 GHz and achieve wide
AR bandwidth.
We put the antenna and minced pork into the microwave
anechoic chamber to measure the xoz plane RHCP and LHCP,
and the antenna prototype is shown in Fig 14(a). We can see that
the main polarization is RHCP as shown in Fig 14(b). These
results proved that the proposed antenna could achieve CP.
IV. CONCLUSION
A broad AR bandwidth implantable antenna operating in
2.4 GHz ISM band is proposed. Four L-shaped slots on the
radiation patch and two orthogonal rectangle slots are properly
employed to achieve miniaturization and expand the AR band-
width. We construct a health monitor microsystem that can be
implanted in the human cerebral cortex to monitor the health of
the heart. Then, we built the human heart and head simulation
environment and evaluated the performance of the system in
the two simulation models. The S-parameter was measured in
minced pork and skin-mimicking gel. The measured impedance
and AR bandwidths are 2.25–2.78 GHz and 2.32–2.63 GHz,
respectively. The measured LHCP and RHCP indicate that the
proposed antenna can achieve the CP. In summary, the proposed
antenna exhibits the advantages of both miniaturization and
broad AR bandwidth.
852 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 20, NO. 5, MAY 2021
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