November 30, 2025Open Access

Design, Performance, and SAR Analysis of a Low‐Profile Metamaterial‐Integrated UWB Antenna for Wireless Body Area Networks

Key Points

Notable enhancement in the peak gain of the antenna reached 6.95 dBi, indicating superior performance in wearable technology.
Simulations conducted on a human body model showed compliance with specific absorption rate limits, maintaining safety standards.
The metamaterial structure integrated with the antenna improved impedance matching and radiation pattern efficiency in wearable applications.
Evaluation of the antenna's bending conditions confirmed its flexibility and robustness for practical use in various settings.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The recent developments in wireless technology have given rise to the emergence of wearable antennas (Ants.). These Ants. are employed in the context of wireless body area networks (WBANs), which find applications in diverse fields including healthcare, military operations, sports, and identification systems. In this work, an ultra‐wideband, compact, low‐profile, and low specific absorption rate (SAR), metamaterial (MTM) integrated wearable Ant. featuring a flexible for WBAN applications is presented. The Ant. and MTM structures are designed on a felt substrate with sizes of 50 × 50 × 1 mm 3 and 61.60 × 61.60 × 2 mm 3 , respectively. The proposed MTM Ant. has a physical thickness of only 4.14 mm, offering the thinnest profile among similar MTM‐integrated UWB wearable Ants. reported in the literature. The MTM structure is designed to mitigate the SAR effect and enhance the Ant. performance parameters, including impedance matching, radiation pattern, and realized gain. The performance of the proposed MTM Ant. was evaluated through simulations conducted in free space and on a human body model, specifically on the chest, arm, and leg. The SAR values of the MTM Ant. are found to be well below the maximum permissible limits of 0.49 W/kg (1 g) and 0.125 W/kg (10 g) established by the European and US standards. Additionally, the integration of an MTM structure into the Ant. configuration was demonstrated to result in a notable enhancement in the simulated peak gain of the Ant., reaching 6.95 dBi. Furthermore, it was observed that the maximum front‐to‐back ratio exhibited an increase to 24.78 dB. Also, the bending conditions of the MTM integrated Ant. are evaluated in detail. The designed Ant. and MTM were fabricated and subsequently subjected to measurements. The results of the measurements were found to be in good agreement with the results of the simulations. Simulation and measurement results show that the proposed Ant. with MTM has satisfactory performance characteristics for WBAN applications.

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