2012 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Applied Electromagnetics (APACE 2012), December 11 - 13, 2012, Melaka, Malaysia
Effects of Human Body and Antenna Orientation on Dipole Textile
Antenna Performance and SAR
N. A. Elias, N. A. Samsuri, M. K. A. Rahim, N. Othman and M. E. Jalil
Radio Communication Engineering Department (RaCED), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Malaysia
Abstract — Wearable textile antennas are supposed to be
integrated within the clothing or secured on the body. Therefore,
the placement of the antennas and their orientation need to be
carefully determined. In this paper, the interaction between a
single band dipole textile antenna for wireless off-body
communication applications with human body is examined. The
simulations are performed by means of CST Microwave Studio
with a single band 2.4 GHzpatch dipole antenna as the radiating
source. The effects of human body are taken into account and
different antenna orientations, locations and distances from the
body are also considered in this study. Results have clearly
indicated that the human body has notably shifts the antenna
resonant frequency and modifies the radiation pattern at the
frequency investigated. Furthermore, the results obtained show
that the SAR values are significantly influenced by the antenna
orientation and position. SAR is increased by utmost 16 % when
the textile antenna is horizontally orientated compared to
antenna in vertical orientation.
Keywords-component; Specic Absorption Rate (SAR), textile
antenna, single band, electromagnetic wave absorption.
I. INTRODUCTION
Public concern regarding human exposure to the
electromagnetic radiation has increased with the rapid growth
in the use of cellular phones, wireless wearable or hand-held
units in personal electronics, civil, medical, sport wear and
military domains. Recommendations regarding limitations of
exposure of the general public to electromagnetic fields have
been issued by ICNIRP (International Committee for Non-
Ionizing Radiation Protocol) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers) in order to prevent any adverse
health effect. Limitation of human exposure is defined in
terms of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). SAR is the
absorbed power per unit mass which represent the amount of
power absorbed by the human biological tissue. The
limitation for localized SAR measured or tested in the head
and trunkmust not exceeded 2 W/kg for any 10 g of tissue for
frequency range of 10MHz to 10GHz [1].
Recently, wearable antennas have received growing
interest due to the introduction of personal and body-centric
networks communications technology [2-8]. Therefore,
additional factors and scenarios must be considered for SAR
compliance testing since the antenna is worn very close to
human body. Other factors such as antenna position, bending
and human body movement are also to be considered. The
influence of diơerent body model on SAR values has been
treated in the literature [9]. The variation of SAR values with
9978-1-4673-3115-9/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE
the distance between the wearable antenna and the human
phantom has also been investigated in some additional studies
[9,10]. Two novel textile antennas has been presented in
[11,12] and their performances in close proximity to human
body has been analyzed. Author [13] has discussed the effect
of human body towards the SAR distribution in the human
head induced by planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) and
monopole antenna. The effects of antenna orientation were
also considered. The author concluded that human body plays
a significant role on the SAR value in the head and
particularly important for the vertical orientation cases for
both antennas investigated.
However, there is no research to date reported on the
effect of the antenna orientation towards the SAR values in
other body part. Most of the previous research only focused
on the effect of the antenna orientation on the antenna
performance and SAR inside the human head only.
Therefore, this project tends to focus on the SAR values and
the energy absorption when the antenna is placed at several
positions in two different orientations. The results will be
discussed in terms of antenna resonant frequency, radiation
pattern, gain and SAR.
II. METHODOLOGY AND SIMULATIONS SETUP
A. Single Band Textile Antenna
Dipole antenna is often used in simulation studies due to
the fact that it can give a conservative estimation of the SAR
induced by a monopole antenna, besides the smaller
simulation space that it occupies [10]. In this paper, a patch
dipole antenna is designed to operate at 2.42 GHz. In order to
design the antenna, few parameters such as the length of the
main arm are calculated base on Eq. (1).
௖
݈ ൌ ͲǤͷ ൈ (1)
௙ξఌ௥
l = length of total dipole arm
c= velocity of speed
f= determined resonant frequency
r= dielectric constant of material
Denim textiles are proposed as the substrate for the
wearable antenna. The permittivity of denim textile is set to
1.7 and the loss tangent is 0.025. The proposed textile
antenna consists of conductive textile which is adhesive
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 2012 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Applied Electromagnetics (APACE 2012), December 11 - 13, 2012, Melaka, Malaysia

conductive fabric as the radiating element and non-

conductive textile which is denim fabric as the substrate.
Technically, the conductive fabric is attached on the denim
textile using iron with controlled temperature. Fig. 1 depicts
the dimension of the single band dipole antenna used.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1. (a) The fabricated antenna, (b)Front view, (c) Back view. Antenna
dimensions are in [mm].

(d) (e)
B. Human Body Model
In this paper, the human body is modeled as Gustav (38 Figure 2. Depictions of horizontally orientated antenna locations. (a)
years old male) made available by Computer Simulation Middle chest, (b) Right chest, (c) Back, (d) Right Waist, (e) Stomach.
Technology (CST). The size is approximately 176 cm with 69
kg of mass. The resolution is set to 2.08 × 2.08 × 8.0 mm in
the simulation, while the electrical properties of the human
tissues and organs are the same as recommended by the IEEE
and FCC. In order to investigate the effect of antenna
orientation towards the antenna performance and SAR values,
two antenna orientations were examined in close proximity
with the body model. To begin, the antenna is horizontally
positioned; next, it has been vertically positioned by rotating
the antenna 90o clockwise. The antenna performance and
(a) (b) (c)
SAR values for the respective orientation are compared at 5
locations; middle chest, right chest, right waist, stomach and
back of the body. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show the on-body
locations of the horizontally and vertically orientated antenna
respectively. The results will be compared with the free space
condition without the presence of human body. In addition to
that, the separation distances between the textile antenna and
the body are varied to 1, 5, 10 and 20 mm respectively. Fig. 4
illustrates the distance between the antenna and human body,
(d) (e)
d used in the simulation work. These distances are chosen to
mimic the actual position of where the wearable antenna Figure 3. Depictions of the vertically orientated antenna locations.
(a) Middle chest, (b) Right chest, (c) Back, (d) Right Waist, (e) Stomach.
usually being placed while in used.

Human body

Figure 4. Depictions of the distance between the antenna and human

body, d.

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 2012 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Applied Electromagnetics (APACE 2012), December 11 - 13, 2012, Melaka, Malaysia

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIO

ONS
A. The Antenna Resonance
The dipole antenna is operating at 2.42 GHz with a return
loss of -41.6 dB in free space. Fig. 5 shows a good agreement
between the simulated and measured resuult of the antenna
resonant frequency. As expected, the preseence of the human
body has shifted the antenna resonant frequuency and reduced
the return loss as shown in Table 1. Thesee results show that
the S11 vary depending on the antennna’s position and
distances from the human body. The worst case is observed
when the horizontally orientatedantenna is placed at 1 mm
from the stomach. The return loss value remains below -
10 dB for all case investigated except foor the horizontally
orientated antenna placed at 1 mm froom the stomach.
However, return loss for the antenna placeed 1 mm from the
stomach in the vertical orientation remaiins below -10 dB.
This shows that the antenna orientattion significantly
influencethe antenna resonant frequency and return loss
value. The highest shift of the resonant freqquency is observed
when the antenna is placed at 1 mm from the t back of human
body in the horizontal orientation (2.62 GHzz).
0 significantly improved as the separation distance between the
-10
B. Antenna Gain and Radiationn Pattern
The values of the antenna gaain are given in Fig. 6. The gain
for horizontally orientated anteenna placed at 1 mm from the
stomach and back of the bodyy is negative value which is -
7.26 dB and -3.35 dB respectiively. Whereas, the gain value
increase for the entire vertically polarized antenna case
investigated. This is because ofo the reflection caused by the
human body as depicted by thhe antenna radiation pattern in
Fig. 7 (a). The antenna radiatiion patterns in E-plane and H-
plane have been computed at the frequency investigated for
three different configurationss: antenna alone, antenna in
vertical orientation and antennna in horizontal orientation
placed at 1 mm from each onn-body locations investigated.
The presence of the human boddy has significantly distorts the
radiation pattern in the E-plaane and H-plane as shown in
Fig. 7. The radiation patternn of the dipole antenna is
significantly distorted along thhe direction of the body due to
the blocking effect by the arm m and some absorptions of the
radiated energy by the human body
b tissues. Antenna mounted
horizontally on the stomach and back of the body show
significant deterioration of the E-plane and H-plane radiation
pattern. In addition, the resultss have shown that the antenna
gain and radiation patterns in both H-plane and E-plane are
antenna and human body,d incrreases in all locations.

-20
V
L
P
X
O
D
W
L
R
Q
S11 (dB)

P
H
D
V
X
U
H
P
H
Q
W

-30

-40

-50
1.5 2.0 2.5 3
3.0 3.5

Frequency (GHz)

Figure 5. The simulated and measured result of the anntenna resonant Figure 6. Gain of the antenna in horizontal and vertical orientation on
frequency for free space condition. the voxel phantom.

BLE I. ANTENNA RESONANT FREQUENCY (FR IN GHZ/S11 IN dB)

TAB
Horizonttal Orientation Verttical Orientation
Antenna Position Antenna--body distance,d Anten
nna-body distance,d
1 mm 5 mm 10 mm 20 mm 1 mm 5 mm
m 10 mm 20 mm
Middle Chest 2.44 -16.35 2.44 -16.884 2.40 -16.97 2.36 -25.71 2.38 -24.34 2.36 -330.69 2.35 -42.26 2.36 -23.74
Right Chest 2.54 -33.77 2.49 -20.006 2.44 -18.75 2.40 -22.87 2.46 -18.56 2.44 -118.44 2.41 -19.52 2.38 -29.02
Stomach 2.48 -8.20 2.59 -26.007 2.50 -16.38 2.42 -14.47 2.46 -19.25 2.44 -115.88 2.40 -16.61 2.35 -29.48
Back 2.62 -22.73 2.54 -14.442 2.46 -17.21 2.40 -19.54 2.54 -13.99 2.45 -118.51 2.42 -18.11 2.37 -24.75
Right Waist 2.50 -25.49 2.48 -18.779 2.45 -17.46 2.40 -21.81 2.49 -16.46 2.45 -114.78 2.41 -15.78 2.36 -23.58

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 2012 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Applied Electromagnetics (APACE 2012), December 11 - 13, 2012, Melaka, Malaysia

Stomach Middle Chest



Stomach Middle Chest 90









90 90
0
10
10 120 60
10


120 60 120 60
0
0 0



-10







-10 -10 150 30




150 30 150 30
-20
-20
-20




-30
-30
-30






 


180 -40 0
180 -40 0




























180 -40 0 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40
0 -30 -20 -10 0 10
10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10


10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 -30
-30
-30




-20
-20








-20 210 330




210 330
210 330 -10 -10
-10


0 0
0









 
240 300 240 300
10 10
240 300



10 27
70
270 Rightt Chest Back
Back 90 Right Chest
90 10
0 90 90
10 120 60 10 10
120 60 120 60 120 60
0
0 0 0

-10
0
-10 150 30 -10 -10
150 30 150 30 150 30
-20
0
-20 -20 -20

-30
0
-30
-30 -30

180 -40
0 0
180 -40 0
10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 180 -40 0 180 -40 0
10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10
10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10
-30
0
-30
-30 -30

-20
0
-20
-20 -20
210 330
210 330
-10
0 210 330 210 330
-10
Right Waist -10
Righ
ht Waist
-10

90 0 90
0
10 10 0
120 60
0
240 300 240 300 120 60
10 10
0 240 300
0 270 240 300 0 10
270 10
270
270
-10 -10
150 30 150 30

-20 -2
20

-30 -3
30

180 -40 0 180 -4

40 0
10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10

-30 -3
30

-20 -2
20

210 330 210 330

-10 -10

0 0

240 300 240 300

10 10
1
270 270

(a) (
(b)
Figure 7. Simulated radiation patterns for antennaa placed 1mm from stomach, middle chest, back, right chest and righht waist. (a) E-plane. (b) H-plane.

vertically orientated antenna thhe SAR value is 3.48 W/kg and

D. The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) 7.20 W/kg respectively. Thee variation of SAR value is
Fig. 8 shows the peak 10 g SAR value inside the human possibly caused by the varriation of the thickness and
body tissue for different antenna orientationn, antenna position composition of different tissue layers in the exposed region as
and antenna-body distances. The highest value
v of peak 10 g well as the variation of the anaatomical shape of human body
SAR occurs when the antenna is horizontaally positioned and model. Besides, in all cases innvestigated, the averaged SAR
placed 1 mm from the back of the body whhich is 15.07 W/kg has notably decrease when thee distance between the antenna
followed by 15.00 W/kg inside the stomachh. It shows that the and the human body is increaseed.
antenna orientation could increase the aveeraged SAR in the
human tissue by 16 % compared to verticaal orientation case
(12.97 W/kg).
Besides, the results have showed that different location of
the antenna on the human body could also affect
a the averaged
SAR value. The variations of the SAR value v for different
locations are influenced by the conductivvity of the tissue
and the electric field strength. The loweest SAR value is
observed when the antenna is placed on middlem chest. The
results also showed that even slight changges in the antenna
position on the human body noticeably affeect the SAR value.
This can be depicted by the huge different in the SAR value
in the middle chest and right chest which is 6.94 W/kg and Figure 8. Peak 10 g SAR value innside various human body parts for
different antenna orientationn and antenna-body distance.
11.09 W/kg (horizontally orientated) resppectively, and for

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 2012 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Applied Electromagnetics (APACE 2012), December 11 - 13, 2012, Melaka, Malaysia

VII. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
The results presented in this paper shows that the presence
of the human body significantly detuned the antenna
resonance frequency and altered the antenna radiation pattern.
Furthermore, the antenna orientation also significantly
influences the antenna resonant frequency and return loss
value. The highest shift of the resonant frequency is observed
when the antenna is horizontally orientated and being placed
at 1 mm from back of the body which is operating at
2.62 GHz. While the worst return loss is observed when the
horizontally orientated antenna is placed at 1 mm from the
stomach which is -8.20 dB compared to vertically orientated
antenna.
Besides, the antenna orientations and locations produce a
prominent effect on SAR value. SAR is increased up to 16 %
when the textile antenna is horizontally orientated compared
to antenna in vertical orientation. This SAR increment for
horizontally orientated antenna is in good agreement for all
the antenna location investigated. Furthermore, the SAR value
is significantly influenced by the antenna locations on the
human body and separation distance between the antenna and
human body.
Besides, the radiation pattern of the dipole antenna with
horizontal orientationis significantly distorted compared to
antenna in vertical orientation. Therefore, due to this
orientation effect, it is better to carefully choose the best
orientation and position to place the antenna on the human
body. The effects when using different antenna, different
frequency and different body part may be differ, therefore it is
worth for further research and will be investigated in future
work.
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Wearable Antenna Performance: A Case Study of WLAN
Antennas " IEEE Journal, 2004.
[7] A. Sani, et al., "Characterisation of ultra wideband wearable
antennas and body-centric wireless-networks in indoor
environment," 2008, pp. 135-138.
[8] A. Sani, et al., "Time domain characterisation of ultra
wideband wearable antennas and radio propagation for body-
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[10] M. Z. a. A. Alden, "Calculation of Whole-Body SAR from a
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[11] Pekka Salonen, et al., "Dual-Band E-Shaped Patch Wearable
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[12] N. K. Kouveliotis and C. N. Capsalis, "Prediction of the SAR
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[13] Magdy F. Iskander, et al., "Polarization and Human Body
Effects on the Microwave Absorption in a Human Head
Exposed to Radiation from Handheld Devices," IEEE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Higher
Education (MOHE), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
(UTeM), Research Management Centre (RMC), School of
Postgraduate (SPS) and Radio Communication Engineering
Department (RACeD) Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
for the support of this research under grant no 78617,
R.J130000.7923.4S007 and 4L008.

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