Meta-Wearable Antennas—A Review of Metamaterial Based Antennas in Wireless Body Area Networks
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materials Review Meta-Wearable Antennas—A Review of Metamaterial Based Antennas in Wireless Body Area Networks Kai Zhang 1 , Ping Jack Soh 2,3 and Sen Yan 1,* 1 School of Information and Communications Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China; [email protected] 2 Advanced Communication Engineering (ACE) Centre of Excellence, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Kangar 01000, Malaysia; [email protected] 3 Faculty of Electronic Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Arau 02600, Malaysia * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has attracted more and more attention in many sectors of society. As a critical component in these systems, wearable antennas suffer from several serious challenges, e.g., electromagnetic coupling between the human body and the antennas, differ- ent physical deformations, and widely varying operating environments, and thus, advanced design methods and techniques are urgently needed to alleviate these limitations. Recent developments have focused on the application of metamaterials in wearable antennas, which is a prospective area and has unique advantages. This article will review the key progress in metamaterial-based antennas for WBAN applications, including wearable antennas involved with composite right/left-handed trans- mission lines (CRLH TLs), wearable antennas based on metasurfaces, and reconfigurable wearable antennas based on tunable metamaterials. These structures have resulted in improved performance of wearable antennas with minimal effects on the human body, which consequently will result in more reliable wearable communication. In addition, various design methodologies of meta-wearable antennas are summarized, and the applications of wearable antennas by these methods are discussed. Keywords: metamaterial; wearable antenna; metasurface; wireless body area network Citation: Zhang, K.; Soh, P.J.; Yan, S. Meta-Wearable Antennas—A Review of Metamaterial Based Antennas in Wireless Body Area Networks. 1. Introduction Materials 2021, 14, 149. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14010149 The emergence of the Internet has brought about tremendous changes in the com- munication of human. Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is one of the emerging Received: 20 November 2020 technologies that is capable of enabling the communication between people and things. Accepted: 28 December 2020 The development of body area network will result in a more context-aware and personal- Published: 31 December 2020 ized communication in an intelligent wireless environment. WBAN is a network distributed around human, which is mainly used to detect and transmit physiological data of users, Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- and cooperate with other networks to integrate the human into the overall network [1–5]. tral with regard to jurisdictional clai- Through WBAN, communication and data synchronization can take place to complete the ms in published maps and institutio- other communication networks, such as wireless sensor networks and mobile communi- nal affiliations. cation networks [1,2,6,7]. An important application of WBAN is in healthcare, where the body area network can transmit physiological information obtained from patients through various physiological sensors, such as blood pressure, blood sugar concentration, tempera- ture, weight, and heartbeat [1,8–10] to the hospital’s medical monitoring equipment or the Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Li- user’s personal mobile terminal [11]. In entertainment, a personal media device with high censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article speed communication capability will enable augmented/virtual/mixed reality interaction distributed under the terms and con- with users, and wirelessly communicate with a device such as glasses [12] or headset [13]. ditions of the Creative Commons At- In military applications, WBAN can provide personal location and mobile communications tribution (CC BY) license (https:// by a helmet [14,15] or a smart watch [16], etc. Figure1 shows some typical applications of creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ WBANs. 4.0/). Materials 2021, 14, 149. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14010149 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials Materials 2020, 14, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 20 Materials 2021, 14, 149communications by a helmet [14,15] or a smart watch [16], etc. Figure 1 shows some typi- 2 of 20 cal applications of WBANs. Medical monitoring Location Wearable devices X JT U Game Virtuality and reality Wireless communication Figure Figure1. A Wireless 1. A Wireless Body Area Body Network Area Network (WBAN) (WBAN) and its andapplications its applications [1,8,9–16 [1,].8 –16]. Wearable antennas,Wearable as antennas,a vital component as a vital in componentWBAN systems, in WBAN enable systems, wireless enablecommu- wireless com- nication withmunication other devices with on other or off devices human on bodies or off [ human17–43]. Compared bodies [17– to43 ].traditional Compared an- to traditional tennas, the designantennas, of wearable the design antennas of wearable are facing antennas many are development facing many bottleneck developments: The bottlenecks: electromagneticThe coupling electromagnetic between coupling the human between body and the the human antenna, body the and varying the antenna, physical the varying deformationphysicals, the widely deformations, varying operating the widely environments varying operating, and limitations environments, of the fabrica- and limitations of tion process the[27– fabrication33]. Further, process the requirements [27–33]. Further, for these the wearable requirements antennas for these include wearable me- antennas chanical robustness,include mechanicallow-profile, robustness, lightweight, low-profile, user comfort lightweight,, fabrication user simplicity comfort, [17 fabrication–24], simplic- ity [17–24], wideband [25,26], and multiband [20,27,29]. Thus, advanced design methods wideband [25,26], and multiband [20,27,29]. Thus, advanced design methods and tech- and techniques are urgently needed to address these problems and demands of wearable niques are urgently needed to address these problems and demands of wearable anten- antennas. In recent years, there has been much literature reporting the fabric material nas. In recent years, there has been much literature reporting the fabric material manufac- manufacturing and treatment: Embroidered fabric material, sewn textile materials, woven turing and treatment: Embroidered fabric material, sewn textile materials, woven fabrics, fabrics, materials that are not woven, knitted fabrics, spun fabrics, braiding, coated fabrics materials that are not woven, knitted fabrics, spun fabrics, braiding, coated fabrics through/lamination, printed fabrics, and chemically treated fabrics [18,19]. Furthermore, through/lamination, printed fabrics, and chemically treated fabrics [18,19]. Furthermore, novel forms of flexible devices such as a fully inkjet-printed antenna [30,31], a polydimethyl- novel forms of flexible devices such as a fully inkjet-printed antenna [30,31], a polydime- siloxane (PDMS)-based antenna [21,22], embroidery [32], and a silicone-based antenna [33], thylsiloxane (PDMS)-based antenna [21,22], embroidery [32], and a silicone-based an- and devices combined with new design methods such as substrate-integrated waveguide tenna [33], and devices combined with new design methods such as substrate-integrated (SIW) technology [34], miniature feeding network [23], magneto-electric dipole [35], char- waveguide (SIW) technology [34], miniature feeding network [23], magneto-electric di- acteristic mode theory [27,36,37], textile-type indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO)-based pole [35], characteristictransistors [ 30mode], and theory thin-film [27 transistor,36,37], textile technologies-type indium [24], aregallium presented zinc foroxide special applica- (IGZO)-basedtion transistors scenarios. [30 Furthermore,], and thin-film miniaturization transistor technologies methods, such[24], asare inductor/capacitor-loaded presented for special applicationantennas scenario [38–40s.], Furthermore loop antennas, miniaturization [41], and planar methods, inverted such F antennasas inductor/ca- (PIFA) [42,43] are pacitor-loadedinvolved antennas in WBAN [38–40 devices], loop design,antennas which [41] is, and helpful planar to improve inverted the F design antennas flexibility of the (PIFA) [42,43wearable] are involved antennas. in WBAN devices design, which is helpful to improve the de- sign flexibility of Metamaterialsthe wearable antennas. are widely defined as an artificial periodic structure, in which the Metamaterials are widely defined as an artificial periodic structure, in which the length of the unit cell p is much smaller than the guided wavelength lg, with unusual length of theproperties unit cell notp is availablemuch smaller in nature than in the electromagneticguided wavelength field λ [44g, –with46]. Theunusual use of metamate- properties notrials available has been in hugely nature successful in the electromagnetic in adapting conventional field [44–46 antenna]. The use designs of met- into a wearable amaterials hasform, been including hugely compositesuccessful right/left-handedin adapting conventional transmission antenna lines designs (CRLH into TLs) a based anten- nas [45–54], zero-order antennas [55,56], metamaterials-inspired antennas [32,57], artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) [58–61], electromagnetic band-Gap (EBG) [62–65], and High- Impedance Surface (HIS) [16]. Wearable antennas