There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Several electrically small resonant antennas employing the composite right/left-handed transmission line (CRLH-TL) are presented for integration with portable RF modules. The proposed antenna designs are based on the unique property of anti-parallel phase and group velocity of the CRLH-TL at its fundamental mode. In this mode, the propagation constant increases as the frequency decreases, therefore, a small guided wavelength can be obtained at a lower frequency to provide the small lambdag/2 resonant length used to realize a compact antenna design. Furthermore, the physical size and the operational frequency of the antenna depend on the unit cell size and the equivalent transmission line model parameters of the CRLH-TL, including series inductance, series capacitance, shunt inductance and shunt capacitance. Optimization of these parameters as well as miniaturization techniques of the physical size of unit cell is investigated. A four unit-cell resonant antenna is designed and tested at 1.06 GHz. The length, width and height of the proposed antenna are 1/19lambda0, 1/23lambda0 and 1/83lambda0, respectively. In addition, a compact antenna using a 2-D three by three mushroom like unit cell arrangement is developed at 1.17 GHz, showing that an increased gain of 0.6 dB and higher radiation efficiency can be achieved over the first prototype antenna. The same design is applied in the development of a circularly polarized antenna operating at 2.46 GHz. A 116deg beamwidth with axial ratio better than 3 dB is observed. The physical size of the proposed mushroom type small antenna and the circularly polarized antenna is 1/14lambda0 by 1/14lambda0 by 1/39lambda0 and 1/10lambda0 by 1/10lambda 0 by 1/36lambda0, respectively

Composite right/left-handed transmission line based compact resonant antennas for RF module integration

The emergence of wireless technologies and advancements in on-body sensor design can enable change in the conventional health-care system, replacing it with wearable health-care systems, centred on the individual. Wearable monitoring systems can provide continuous physiological data, as well as better information regarding the general health of individuals. Thus, such vital-sign monitoring systems will reduce health-care costs by disease prevention and enhance the quality of life with disease management. In this paper, recent progress in non-invasive monitoring technologies for chronic disease management is reviewed. In particular, devices and techniques for monitoring blood pressure, blood glucose levels, cardiac activity and respiratory activity are discussed; in addition, on-body propagation issues for multiple sensors are presented.

Detecting Vital Signs with Wearable Wireless Sensors

Looking to increase the functionality of current wireless platforms and to improve their quality of service, we have explored the merits of using frequency-reconfigurable antennas as an alternative for multiband antennas. Our study included an analysis of various reconfigurable and multiband structures such as patches, wires, and combinations. Switches, such as radio-frequency microelectromechanical systems (RFMEMS) and p-i-n diodes, were also studied and directly incorporated onto antenna structures to successfully form frequency-reconfigurable antennas.

Frequency-reconfigurable antennas for multiradio wireless platforms

The electromagnetic fields within a detailed model of the human eye and its surrounding bony orbit are calculated for two different frequencies of plane-wave irradiation: 750 MHz and 1.5 GHz. The computation is performed with a finite-difference algorithm for the time-dependent Maxwell's equations, carried out to the sinusoidal steady state. The heating potential, derived from the square of the electric field, is used to calculate the temperatures induced within the eyeball of the model. This computation is performed with the implicit alternating-direction (IAD) algorithm for the heat conduction equation. Using an order-of-magnitude estimate of the heat-sinking capacity of the retinal blood supply, it is determined that a hot spot exceeding 40.4/spl deg/C occurs at the center of the model eyeball at an incident power level of 100 mW/cm/sup 2/ at 1.5 GHz.

Computation of the Electromagnetic Fields and Induced Temperatures Within a Model of the Microwave-Irradiated Human Eye

The implementation of a polycrystalline silicon solar cell as a microwave groundplane in a low-profile, reduced-footprint microstrip patch antenna design for autonomous communication applications is reported. The effects on the antenna/solar performances due to the integration, different electrical conductivities in the silicon layer and variation in incident light intensity are investigated. The antenna sensitivity to the orientation of the anisotropic solar cell geometry is discussed.

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Integration of Microstrip Patch Antenna With Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cell

Mobile phone 'talk-mode' signal delays EEG-determined sleep onset.

The benefits resulting from the inclusion of ferrite in material loaded antennas are investigated, initially through the use of a spherical analytic model and then through a transmission line matrix simulation tool applied to a rectangular slab geometry. It is observed that a material with equality of relative permittivity and permeability in combination with specific positioning of the antenna in relation to the head, can result in the definitive small-size, high efficiency and bandwidth, low specific absorption rate (SAR) antenna. The accuracy of the simulations is validated both through efficiency and SAR measurements of three material coated monopole samples. Further research into optimizing the above attributes and translating them into a handset antenna leads to a multiband antenna design covering the GSM 1800, 1900, UMTS and Bluetooth bands, with a SAR value reduced by 88% compared to conventional phones and an efficiency of 38% at 1.8 GHz. A tri-band antenna design is also presented, utilizing currently available lossy ferrite material and it is considered as the first step towards the feasibility of the ultimate low SAR multiband ferrite handset antenna, until further material development specifically for antenna applications takes place

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Low SAR Ferrite Handset Antenna Design

A wideband circularly-polarized printed antenna is proposed, which employs an asymmetrical dipole and a slit in the ground plane which are fed by an L-shaped microstrip feedline using a via. The proposed antenna geometry is arranged so that the orthogonal surface currents, which are generated in the dipole, feedline and ground plane, have the appropriate phase to provide circular polarization. A parametric study of the key parameters is made and the mechanism for circular polarization is described. The measured results show that the impedance bandwidth is approximately 1.34 GHz (2.45 GHz to 3.79 GHz) and the 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth is approximately 770 MHz (2.88 GHz to 3.65 GHz) which represent fractional bandwidths of approximately 41% and 23%, respectively, with respect to a centre frequency of 3.3 GHz.

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Microstrip-Fed Wideband Circularly Polarized Printed Antenna

Single element loop, dipole and conventional square patch antennas have been used as hyperthermia applicators in the treatment of cancerous human cells at superficial depths inside the body. A smaller novel patch antenna in very close proximity to a phantom tissue model produces an enhanced specific absorption rate pattern without significant frequency detuning or impedance mismatch. The new patch increases its coupling aperture by supporting a combination of resonances that are also typical for loop, dipole and square patch antennas. For computation efficiency and clarity in the synthesized hyperthermia treatment conditions, simplified planar tri-layered tissue models interfaced with a water-bolus are used to study the permittivity loading on the antennas and the resultant specific absorption rates.

Patrick McEvoy

Papers

Integration of Microstrip Patch Antenna With Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cell

Mobile phone 'talk-mode' signal delays EEG-determined sleep onset.

Low SAR Ferrite Handset Antenna Design

Microstrip-Fed Wideband Circularly Polarized Printed Antenna

Compact Patch Antenna for Electromagnetic Interaction With Human Tissue at 434 MHz