Antennas based on low-cost thermoplastic polymer substrates for communication in the industrial, scientific and medical radio band

ABSTRACT

This work addresses the design guidelines, manufacturing process and experimental test of antennas based on low cost and low loss thermoplastic polymer substrates. The proposed antennas are based on patch topologies operating at the 2.45 GHz industrial scientific and medical radio band for wireless body area network applications. Several substrates composed of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and reused waste chicken feather have been used. Electromagnetic simulations and experimental results have been compared. The reported results reveal a notable performance in terms of antenna parameters: return loss, radiation pattern, realized gain, and efficiency. In particular, EVA and EVA with chicken feathers present competitive return losses and gains. Moreover, on-voxel analysis reveals that specific absorption rate standards are satisfied for both public and occupational sector with a significant safety margin. The study demonstrates the viability of those polymer substrates to deploy cost-effective solutions for wireless electronic systems including reusable material substrates.

KEYWORDS:

• Polymers
• reused material substrates
• antennas
• wireless body area network

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Spanish Government MINECO under Project TEC2016-79465-R.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

I. Gil http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7175-5756

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Economí-a y Competitividad: [grant number TEC2016-79465-R].

Notes on contributors

I. Gil

I. Gil was born in 1978 in Barcelona, Spain. He received degrees in physics and electronics engineering in 2000 and 2003, and then his PhD in 2007 from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. From 2003 to 2008 he was assistant professor in electronics and a researcher with the RF-Microwave Group in the Electronic Engineering Department, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona, Spain. From 2006 to 2008 he worked for EPSON Europe Electronics GmbH where he developed high-performance integrated RF CMOS circuits, transceivers and system design. In 2008 he joined the Electronic Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain, as lecturer and researcher. Since 2011 he is associate professor at UPC. Since 2012 he is also a collaborator at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain. He has been involved in 12 research projects (3 as principal researcher) in different research activities including passive and active RF and microwave devices and circuits, metamaterials, EMC and smart textile electronics. He is co-author of more than 100 scientific publications and 17 patents. He has been awarded the Duran Farell de Investigación Tecnológica (2006) and the patent award from SEIKO EPSON Corporation (2010). From 2012–2014 he served as Chairman of the Spanish IEEE EMC Chapter. In 2017 he was academic visitor at Loughborough University (UK) in the Wireless Communications Research Group.

X. Colom

X. Colom was born in Sant Joan de les Abadesses (a little village in Catalan Pyrenees) Spain in 1964. Received his BS in Industrial Engineering (Chemical Engineering), MS in Industrial Engineering (Textile Engineering) and Ph.D in Industrial Engineering (Material Science) from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in 1998. He has been working in the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTECH from 1989. Currently, he is professor and coordinate several subjects (Chemical Engineering Materials, Composite Materials and Structure and properties of materials) in bachelor degree and master degrees in Chemical Engineering in the Terrassa School of Industrial and Aeronautics Engineering. He is author of three patents and has participated in several Congresses as invited lecturer. He has worked with different companies in the field of polymeric materials, signing cooperation agreements and developed more than 50 technical reports for companies of Catalunya (Spain). His research interests are in the field of sustainable composite materials, where different polymeric matrix reinforced with lignocellulosic materials, ground tyre rubber and currently I am working in recycling and reclaimed composite materials. He works at the Polymeric Materials Laboratory of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain. He won the National Award Editions 2006, the 1st University Teaching Quality Award by the realization of Multimedia Materials (DVD-CD) about “renewable energy sources” 2007 and “Industrial Waste” 2012 and Terrassa Innovation Award 2007 by entrepreneurs. He has published about 80 articles in journals indexed in the Science Citation Index, mostly from 2000. He submitted about 120 communications at scientific meetings of international or domestic, with several invited papers and over 90 oral. He has directed seven doctoral theses and two more are in progress. He was advisor of over 45 Degree and Master Projects, of which 25 are Erasmus students.