A compact flexible textile artificial magnetic conductor-based wearable monopole antenna for low specific absorption rate wrist applications

A compact monopole antenna backed with a 1 × 2 textile-based artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) array is proposed. Textile was mainly selected for the AMC materials according to an investigation that took place between different AMC substrate materials, where it was settled that the textile one displayed the highest antenna gain and efficiency. The monopole antenna and the AMC, distanced apart by 5 mm, combined form the integrated design. It operates at 2.4 GHz, which was particularly selected as the resonant frequency for wirelessly sending the subject's symptoms data via Wi-Fi, with realized gain and total efficiency of 6.76 dBi and 88.4%, respectively, in free space. Separated by 3 mm from the specific anthropomorphic mannequin human hand model, it displays a realized gain and total efficiency of 4.06 dBi and 44.39%, respectively, in a flat condition. Furthermore, it exhibits a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 1.8 W/kg averaged over 10 g of tissue. When bent over the human hand model, it performs well and exhibits a maximum SAR of 0.521 and 0.406 W/kg, averaged over 1 and 10 g of tissues, respectively. As a result of such outcomes, the proposed integrated design can be nominated for wearable hand/wrist and Wi-Fi applications.