Summary
International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
2012
Session Number:2A2
Session:
Number:2A2-3
Body-centric Wireless Communications at 94GHz
Alice Pellegrini,
pp.-
Publication Date:2012/10/29
Online ISSN:2188-5079
Summary:
Wireless applications where both receivers and transmitters are located on the human body, also known as Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) applications, have been extensively investigated in the past few years with commercial products already available. WBANs are relevant to different applications, both in civil and military fields, such as vital signs monitoring, augmented reality, and interactive entertainment. Mainly, frequencies up to X band have been considered so far, but the interest of research activity is progressively moving towards higher frequencies, namely V and W bands, covering 50 to 75 GHz and 75 to 110 GHz respectively. In addition to the obvious advantages of potentially higher data rates and more compact devices, such frequencies do not suffer from the overcrowding that is present at lower bands, where a multitude of applications coexist. Moreover, it is also easier to confine the radiated energy around the body, because of the possibility to design directive but compact antennas and the higher free space attenuation. Finally, the reduced penetration depth due to the characteristics of human tissues at such frequencies mitigates the concerns for the interaction between signals and biological tissues. The human body is a dispersive and dissipative medium, and its typical dimensions, with respect to the wavelength, are extremely large at the considered frequencies. So far, the Finite Differences in Time Domain (FDTD) method has been widely used up to X band, but the computational burden at millimetre-wave frequencies suggests considering the use of different, more efficient techniques, such as Ray Tracing (RT) in combination with the Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD). The aim of this paper is to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of the above mentioned method at W band by comparing the results of numerical simulations and on-body measurements at 94GHz.