Received: 13 December 2019

DOI: 10.1002/mop.32384

REVIEW

Dielectric resonator antenna 1 | INTRODUCTION

button textile antenna for Nowadays, the field of telecommunications is booming and
the antenna is considered as an essential element in the chain
off-body applications of transmission. Among all of the available types of anten-
nas, the dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) antenna was
Ameni Mersani1 | designed to compensate for one of the major drawbacks of
microstrip antennas, namely limited bandwidth which can be
Wahida Bouamara | Lotfi Osman1
1
| a handicap for high-speed communications. Moreover,
2 thanks to the use of materials with a high dielectric constant
Jean-Marc Ribero
(20 < εr < 100) and low loss tangent (tan δ < 10-4), this
1
High-Frequency Electronic Circuits and Systems, Faculty of Sciences of
antenna holds dimensions that are much smaller than those
Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia of the resonant half-wave printed antenna.1-7 By virtue of a
2
CNRS, LEAT, Université Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Sophia Antipolis, France high-quality factor, these structures were initially used in
shielded microwave circuits to provide filtering or oscillating
Correspondence functions. Once the resonator is left in a free environment, it
Ameni Mersani, UR 13ES37, High-Frequency Electronic Circuits and
is found that the quality factor decreases substantially, which
Systems, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis
2092, Tunisia. suggests the design of an application as an antenna since the
Email: mersani.ameni@gmail.com power lost is now radiated.1-7 Dielectric resonators are usually
used in antennas because of their many advantages. Various
Abstract forms are conceivable and many feeding techniques are possi-
ble. Miniaturization problems still remain an obstacle to com-
Dielectric resonators have become very important thanks
munication systems. Several improvement techniques are then
to the daily evolution of telecommunication systems
implemented to overcome with this disadvantage. Among those
which aim to continually reduce the size and the
techniques, one can name: the antennas meanders, the addition
weight of systems, besides rising the frequency and
of slots on the antenna, metamaterial, and antennas with a
the bandwidth. In this paper, a flexible antenna using
dielectric resonator. Our goal is to study a simple, low-profile
dielectric resonator antenna is presented and designed
and relatively high-gain antenna topology. For this reason, we
using textile materials for wearable applications at
have chosen the DRAs. The implantation of the antennas on
the WLAN band. The designed antenna is meant to
the human body induces an alteration in its performance. Deg-
act like a button placed on the shoulders. A study on
radation involves radiation, adaptation, polarization, etc. It can
the antenna/body interaction beginning with a com-
also be of a very significant magnitude, so it is desirable to take
parison of the performance of the free space anten-
this into account at the design stage or at least when character-
nas, as well as that of a phantom rectangle with the
izing it. This requires, first of all, a detailed study and an
physical properties of the human body is verified.
advanced understanding of the antenna/body interaction. To be
Next to that, an impressive gain of 5.4 dB is
accepted by the user, it is also necessary that the antennas
achieved at the operating frequency of 5.8 GHz. It
should be small, hidden, and if possible planar. These planar
has been confirmed that the specific absorption rate
antennas can eventually be integrated into clothing. On the
meets the standard. Another study on the influence
other hand, for public health reasons, it is essential to take pre-
of a mobile phone on the operation of the antenna
cautionary measures and to limit the dissipated electromagnetic
has also been presented. These results were con-
power in people’s vital organs. Several international studies
firmed by the measurements.
which have been conducted were based on biological and phys-
KEYWORDS
ical analyses. These studies have resulted in some limitations
which are imposed on the specific absorption rate (SAR) which
dielectric resonator antenna, SAR, textile substrate, wearable
is a measure of the electromagnetic energy absorbed per unit
antenna, WLAN
mass and characterizes what is usually referred to as the “ther-
mal effect” (temperature rise in human tissue). Several studies

Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2020;1–9. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mop © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1
2 MERSANI ET AL.
have been conducted on the operation of wearable antennas
using different miniaturization techniques to reduce the SAR
for WLAN applications at 5.8 GHz. In Reference 8, a crescent-
shaped antenna made from textile materials has been designed
by combining two circle-shaped antennas with different radii in
such a manner to achieve the desired resonant frequency com-
patible with the WLAN. Studies have been conducted on the
pursuit of miniaturization and performance. The antenna design
must be sensible and provide reliable results. Research is being
carried out on button antennas. In Reference 9, a compact mini-
aturized wearable antenna with the appearance of a button on
clothing for WLAN applications has been presented. A dual-
band with dual-mode button antenna for body-centric commu-
nications has been proposed in Reference 10. The authors in
Reference 20 presented a dual-band cuff button antenna which
operates in the ISM band and the UNII band. The antenna has
a compact size 22.3 × 3.18 mm2 but it provides a low gain
2.1 dB. The topology radiator in Reference 21 of the new circu-
lar polarized button antenna has a size of 19.5 × 8 mm2 is
smaller than the reference radiator.20 However, its gain is thus
low, it is 2.8 dB. This article is therefore part of this framework
in order to scan the field of textile antennas based on DRAs in
order to propose and design a prototype of the most miniatur-
ized and efficient flexible antenna. This paper aims also at test-
ing the performance of the DRA antenna on a model of the
human body. In Section 1, an electromagnetic simulation of the
chosen structure is carried out under the software CST MWS.
The simulation results make it possible to study the operation
of antennas in free space and on a phantom. Studies on the
coefficient of adaptation, the radiation pattern, the effectiveness,
and SAR of the antenna in free space and on a phantom are
F I G U R E 1 Textile antenna with the dielectric resonator. A, Perspective view. B, Top view. C, Back view. D, Bottom view. E, DRA integrated
with clothes. F, DRA [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
also presented. The study of the effects of external electromag-
netic waves on the antenna was discussed in Section 3.
2 | DESIGN AND SIMULATIONS
2.1 | Antenna geometry
Our dielectric resonator wearable antenna, which behaves
like a button, consists of a dielectric resonator (ring-shaped)
and is carried on support which acts as a ground plane with
which a feed device is associated, as shown in Figure 1. This
structure ensures the excitation of the resonator. The latter is
divided of the metal part which limits all the Ohmic losses.
It has also been noted that the excitation has been achieved
by coupling a microstrip line through a rectangular slot cut
in the ground plane. The dielectric permittivity of the resona-
tor is one of the most sensitive parameters in the evaluation
of the antenna because any small variation in the permittivity
due to the temperature can shift the resonance frequency. It
should be noted that materials with a lower dielectric con-
stant result in a wider bandwidth, and subsequently a more
efficient antenna.11 The characteristics of the material cho-
sen in our work, a ceramic resonator, are low-a medium-high
dielectric permittivity allowing for the realization of dielec-
tric resonators with high-quality factor (high Q) and low
losses (tan δ = 0.0001).12,13 The simulated structure is a
cylindrical dielectric resonator of height H and radius
R centered above a finite mass plane. The electromagnetic
properties of a DRA are determined by its dielectric permit-
tivity and physical dimensions. So, in this part, a parametric
study is conducted. This study mainly aims to understand
MERSANI ET AL. 3

F I G U R E 2 Influence of, A, the permittivity, B, thickness “H,” C, radius “R” of DRA on the resonance frequency [Color figure can be viewed
at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

the influence of each parameter (permittivity, height of

F I G U R E 3 Manufactured antenna [Color figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
DRA, and radius of DRA) on the performance of the antenna
(adaptation/radiation).
To characterize the influence of the dielectric resonator’s
permittivity on the resonant frequency and the bandwidth of
the antenna, we have varied the value of the permittivity
from 20 to 50. In this study, the CST Microwave Studio sim-
ulator is used to simulate the DRA antenna. When studying
the effect of the DRA permittivity, other parameters, such as
the thickness, radius, and dimensions of the antenna are
fixed while only the permittivity εr varies. Figure 2a shows
the effect of this variation on the resonance frequency
around 5.8 GHz. It should be noted that when the permittiv-
ity increases, the resonance frequency decreases. We have
then opted for a permittivity equal to 36 that meets our needs
to resonate at the frequency of 5.8 GHz. Figure 2b shows
the change in frequency as a function of the height of
the resonator. By varying the resonator’s height from 2 to
3 mm, we notice that the resonance frequency decreases.
4 MERSANI ET AL.
F I G U R E 4 Simulated and measured reflection coefficients of the
antenna [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIGURE 5 Simulated efficiency of the DRA antenna at 5.8 GHz
The DRA resonance frequency is highly sensitive to the
resonator’s dimensions, but it helps to find the desired
frequency since there are several parameters to vary.
Figure 2c shows the variation in frequency as a function
of the radius. By varying the radius from 12 to 16 mm in
1 mm steps, the resonance frequency decreases.
Due to a number of constraints concerning the design
and the field of use, our approach has been more experimen-
tal than theoretical. Indeed, we have not, for example, for-
mally taken into account the modes of excitation. By taking
this aspect into account more rigorously, the resonator’s
F I G U R E 6 Simulation and antenna gain measurement results
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
performance and geometric dimensions should have been
probably improved. Consequently, the choice of the radius
“R” helps to bring back a good adaptation of the antenna.
Figures 3–6 show, respectively, the final manufactured
structure of the DRA textile antenna’s materials, the reflec-
tion coefficient of the antenna, the efficiency, the gain, and
the radiation diagram. The antenna can be integrated into
clothing fed by a power line below a backplane of 50 Ω
impedance, with a permittivity εr = 22, radius R = 14 mm,
and a height H = 3.25 mm. The DRA antenna achieved a
total visible diameter and height of 14 and 3.25 mm, respec-
tively. The measurement of the reflection coefficient shown
in Figure 4 is a good match for the simulation with respect
to the resonance value (f = 5.8 GHz). The frequency offset
and the bandwidth are caused by the air gap between the
antenna and the ceramic DRA. For a realized antenna, the
placement of connectors, the quality of the welds, etc. can
cause the measured results to be rarely in perfect agreement
with the simulated results.
Figure 5 shows that the simulated efficiency varies from
50% to 60% in the frequency range from 5.4 to 5.9 GHz.
However, there is a maximum gain of 60% at 5.8 GHz. The
evolution of the simulated and measured maximum gain of
the antenna is shown in Figure 6.The simulation curve
shows a gain of values almost equal to 5.4 dB at the reso-
nance frequency while there is a decrease in the measure-
ment level with a gain equal to 4.3 dB at 5.8 GHz.
The directivity of the wearable antenna is shown in
Figure 7. Our structure makes it possible to form a direc-
tional diagram with maximum radiation of 7.2 dBi, as shown
in Figure 7a. The variation in the radiation pattern of the tex-
tile antenna in E- and H-plane is shown in Figures 7b,c,
MERSANI ET AL. 5

F I G U R E 7 Radiation patterns of the antenna at 5.8 GHz. A, 3-D farfield. B, E-plane. C, H-plane [Color figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

F I G U R E 8 Antenna implanted above a parallelepiped phantom

[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

respectively. The radiation diagram has the same aspect in

the simulation and measurement, in spite of some lag due to
manufacturing errors.

2.2 | DRA wearable antenna on the body

To understand the interaction between electromagnetic waves
and the human body, it is important to have knowledge of the
physical properties of biological tissues. The human body is a
stratified dielectric whose physical properties vary signifi-
cantly with the tissue types and the frequency of work. To
study the propagation of radio waves and then analyzing the
performance of antennas on the surface of the body, modeling
the body is necessary. References 14 and 15 present the
results of the permittivity and conductivity measurements for
a number of human tissues at different frequencies.
This section presents the simulation results of the coeffi-
cient of reflection and the directionality radiation diagram of
F I G U R E 9 Adaptation in free space and on the phantom [Color
figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
the antenna implanted above a parallelepiped phantom having
the physical properties of the 5.8 GHz muscle. The parallele-
piped phantom is modeled with the following dimensions:
65 mm × 65 mm × 10 mm, as shown in Figure 8 and with a
gap of 10 mm between the phantom and the DRA antenna.
Figure 9 shows the reflection coefficient of the antenna
in free space and on the phantom. The bandwidth is mea-
sured at 5.5 to 5.9 GHz in free space and on the phantom
6 MERSANI ET AL.

F I G U R E 1 0 Radiation pattern of DRA antenna above a phantom. A, 3-D farfield, B, at E-plane and H-plane [Color figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

TABLE 1 Simulated SAR of DRA antenna on the human body

Frequency SAR, W/kg SAR, W/kg

(GHz) for 1 g tissue for 10 g tissue
Antenna on 5.8 0.105 0.27
the body

with a decrease in the level of adaptation, which is due to

the dispersive medium of the body.
Figure 10 shows the radiation pattern of the antenna
traced in the azimuthal direction.
By simulating the radiation pattern of the antenna near a
phantom under CST, a directivity of 5.05 dBi was raised to
5.8 GHz. According to the planes H and E, the radiation is
maximum toward the front.
Today, the radiofrequency exposure limits for wearable
F I G U R E 1 1 Influence of a mobile phone on the performance of
devices users such as antennas are defined with the physical the antenna [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
magnitude called SAR, expressed in W/kg as shown in
Equation (1):

σE 2 absorption. And on the other hand, the local SAR

2ρ
SAR = ðW=KgÞ:
where σ is the conductivity of the medium (S/m), ρ is its
density (kg/m3), and E the value of the electric field (V/m).
The exposure assessment is divided into two categories.
On the one hand, the overall exposure assessed by calculat-
ing the “whole body SAR” corresponding to the total body
(or [SAR]10g or [SAR]1g) corresponding to absorption in a
certain amount of mass. Local exposure allows for the expo-
ð1Þ sure of specific parts of the body (example of the head,
brain, etc.).16
The SAR is simulated by using a voxel model developed
in CST. Depending on the standard used, the results are
averaged over a cubic volume of 1 g (USA, Equation 2) or
10 g (Europe, Equation 3), for the frequency range of
MERSANI ET AL. 7

100 kHz to 6 GHz. The SAR value averaged over the whole The SAR values found confirm that we are in compli-
human body shall be less than 0.08 W/kg.17 ance with the current regulations on energy absorption levels
in the human body.
ðSARÞ1g ≤ 1:6 W=Kg ð2Þ

ðSARÞ10g ≤ 2 W=Kg: ð3Þ

3 | EFFECT OF EXTERNAL
SAR values for 1 and 10 g of tissue are identified and ELECTROMAGNETIC W AVES ON
summarized in Table 1. So we have SAR values of 0.27 and THE ANTENNA
0.105 W/kg for 10 and 1 g of tissue, respectively. The SAR
levels are well below the maximum powers allowed by the Our objective in this section is to study and analyze the
regulation.18 effect of a device with an electromagnetic field on the

F I G U R E 1 2 A, S11, B, efficiency, and, C, radiation patterns of the DRA antenna near the mobile phone [Color figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
8 MERSANI ET AL.

TABLE 2 Summary of the dimensions, frequency band, and gain OR C ID

of the literature
Ameni Mersani https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5284-6185
Dimension Lotfi Osman https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9931-9705
(diameter × height) Frequency
Reference (mm2) band (GHz) Gain (dB)
9 30 × 5 5.8 5
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank the LEAT Laboratory for its sup-
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9
How to cite this article: Mersani A, Bouamara W,
Osman L, Ribero J-M. Dielectric resonator antenna
button textile antenna for off-body applications.
Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2020;1–9. https://doi.org/
10.1002/mop.32384