756 PIERS Proceedings, Taipei, March 25–28, 2013

Compact Folded Meander PIFA Antennas in MedRadio Bands

Chiu-Yueh Huang, Chi-Lin Tsai, and Chin-Lung Yang
National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan

Abstract— This study proposes a novel compact antenna design for MedRadio Band (401–
406 MHz). The basic structure is based on the PIFA antenna. The ground plane is bent to the
other side of the substrate to reduce the size. The point of C is connected to the C0 . The proposed
miniaturized antenna is printed on the PCB board (FR4 substrate with thickness of 0.8 mm,
dielectric constant of 4.4), with a total size of 320 mm3 (0.0269λ0 × 0.0269λ0 × 0.00108λ0 mm3 ).
The proposed antenna is the single layer design, which total size is compact. Its return loss
is more than 15 dB at 404 MHz. The antenna simulated gain and efficiency are −24 dBi and
0.26%. Moreover, its bandwidth covers the whole MedRadio band (401–406 MHz). This compact
antenna is suitable for implantable applications.

1. INTRODUCTION
As biomedical microwave systems grow and develop fast and widely. Implantable antenna is one
of the crucial points, and its quality influences the efficiency and transmission of the entire system.
Accordingly, there are many requirements of the implantable antennas such as compact size, high
gain, low specific absorption rate (SAR), and biocompatibility performance in various parts of the
human body. In order to overcome the size limitation, many studies on the implantable antenna
miniaturization have been proposed, aiming at reducing the physical size of the antenna, while in-
creasing its electrical size. Two different shapes (spiral and serpentine) implantable antenna designs
built on MACOR substrate (εr = 6.1), which size is 1340.64 mm3 [1]. A 1265.625-mm3 rectangular
implantable antenna for continuous glucose-monitoring applications has been reported [2], which
is fabricated on the high-permittivity (εr = 10.2) Rogers 3210 dielectric and applies a serpentine
radiator to reduce the total size. It can be considered as a meandered monopole antenna to reduce
the size. Besides, the electrical path is increased by the grounding pin design, which likes a ground
plane on a monopole antenna (planar inverted-F antenna, PIFA). Therefore, the design of ground-
ing pin (PIFA antennas), has been proven to be very effective ways of reducing the dimensions of
the antenna [3]. Consisting of the π-shape with two meandered strips, the PIFA structure of a
843.6-mm3 size can achieve dual-modes resonance over a large bandwidth [4, 5]. Other implantable
antennas applying similar miniaturization techniques include multilayer structures PIFA, which
occupies a miniaturized volume of 335.76 mm3 [6].
In this paper, a compact PIFA structure is designed for MedRadio Band (401–406 MHz). Util-
ising the PIFA structure can excite a resonant frequencies at 404 MHz, and its return loss is more
than 15 dB. The ground plane is bent to the other side of the substrate to reduce the size to 320 mm3
(0.0269λ0 × 0.0269λ0 × 0.00108λ0 mm3 ). Thus, this compact antenna is suitable for implantable
applications.
2. ANTENNA DESIGN
The proposed structure is based on the meandering PIFA antenna. The geometry is shown in
Fig. 1, the ground plane is bent to the other side of the substrate to reduce the size. In addition,
we bent the radiator to the backside of the substrate By varying those parameters (W1 , W2 and
W3 ), we can achieve the input impedance matching. The point C is connected to the C0 . Point
A is the feeding point, and point B is the shorting point. The proposed antenna is printed on the
PCB board (FR4 substrate with thickness of 0.8 mm, dielectric constant of 4.4), with a total size
of 320 mm3 (0.0269λ0 × 0.0269λ0 × 0.00108λ0 mm3 ).
The operating principle is studied in Fig. 2(a) in which results of the simulated return loss
of the proposed antenna in Fig. 2(b), including in the case of the design1 (the overall size of
the antenna, which is about a quarter-wavelength radiator at 404 MHz, and the width of 50 Ω
impedance matching), in the case of the design2 (adjust the linewidth W1 = 2.2 mm), in the case
of the design3 (adjust the linewidth W2 = 0.6 mm) and in the case of the whole proposed antenna
(adjust the linewidth W3 = 3.5 mm). The corresponding dimensions of the antennas in above cases
are the same as those of the proposed antenna. In the case of the design1, a resonant mode is seen
to occur at about 450 MHz, although the impedance matching of this resonant mode still needs to
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Taipei, March 25–28, 2013 757

(a) (b)

Figure 1: (a) Top view of the proposed antenna. (b) Bottom view of the proposed antenna.

(a) (b)

Figure 2: Simulated return loss of the proposed antenna, in the case of the design1, in the case of the design2,
in the case of the design3 and in the case of the whole proposed antenna.

be improved. In the case of the design2 and design3, the resonant mode drops to approximately
430 MHz and the impedance matching is better than design1. In the case of the proposed antenna,
it is operating in MedRadio Band (401–406 MHz) and its return loss is more than 15 dB at 404 MHz.
3. RESULTS
The optimal performance of proposed antenna is obtained by using the Ansoft simulation software
high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS). Fig. 3 shows the simulated and measured return loss
of the proposed antenna. Clearly, the resonant frequency is dominated by the PIFA structure.
Therefore the input impedance can be adjusted by changing the parameters of the width and the
length (W1 , W2 and W3 ). The simulated and measured return loss results are 15.68 dB and 29 dB,
respectively. It is operated in MedRadio Band (401–406 MHz). The simulated gain and efficiency
is shown in Fig. 4, the antenna simulated gain and efficiency are −24 dBi and 0.26% at 404 MHz.
Moreover, since in electrically small antennas the efficiency can be very low.
As shown in Fig. 5, the two-dimensional simulated far-field radiation patterns (404 MHz) of the
proposed antennas. It can be observed that the H-plane (xy-plane) radiation patterns are nearly
omni-directionally, and the cross polarizations of the radiation patterns are quite low. Fig. 6 shows
the three-dimensional simulated far-field radiation patterns (404 MHz) of the proposed antennas,
and the maximum gain value is −24 dB. This gain is similar to other implantable antennas presented
in the [4, 5], although our design presents the advantage of a smaller size.
4. MEASURED SETUP
The proposed antenna was fabricated on a FR4 substrate (the thickness of 0.8 mm, dielectric
constant of 4.4). The total size is 320 mm3 (0.0269λ0 × 0.0269λ0 × 0.00108λ0 mm3 ). A 50 Ω coaxial
758 PIERS Proceedings, Taipei, March 25–28, 2013

Figure 3: The simulated and measured return loss Figure 4: The simulated gain and efficiency plot for
of the proposed antenna. 404 MHz.

(a) H-plane (b) E-plane

Figure 5: Simulated 2-D radiation pattern for Figure 6: Simulated 3-D radiation pattern for
404 MHz. (a) H-plane. (b) E-plane. 404 MHz.

Figure 7: The designed antenna of fabricated prototype.

cable was used to feed the proposed antenna. In order to verify the simulation results, antenna
prototypes were built and were tested with an Agilent E5071C network analyzer. Fig. 7 shows the
designed antenna of fabricated prototype.

5. CONCLUSIONS

The compact PIFA implantable antenna for MedRadio Band (401–406 MHz) has been proposed.
The ground plane is bent to the other side of the substrate to reduce the size. The PIFA antenna
radiation main branches bent to the back substrate surface extending into a spiral shape by varying
linewidth (W1 , W2 and W3 ) to achieve impedance matching. The proposed antenna’s measured
return loss is 29 dB at 404 MHz. The simulated gain and efficiency are −24 dBi and 0.26% at
404 MHz, respectively. This compact antenna is suitable for implantable applications.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Taipei, March 25–28, 2013 759

REFERENCES
1. Soontornpipit, P., C. M. Furse, and C. C. You, “Design of implantable microstrip antenna
for communication with medical implants,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and
Techniques, Vol. 52, No. 8, 1944–1951, Aug. 2004.
2. Karacolak, T., A. Z. Hood, and E. Topsakal, “Design of a dual-band implantable antenna and
development of skin mimicking gels for continuous glucose monitoring,” IEEE Transactions
on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 56, No. 4, 1001–1008, Apr. 2008.
3. Yahya, R. S. and J. Kim, Implanted Antennas in Medical Wireless Communications, 1st Edi-
tion, Morgan and Claypool, USA, 2006.
4. Lee, C. M., T. C. Yo, F. J. Huang, and C. H. Luo, “Dual-resonant π-shape with double L-strips
PIFA for implantable biotelemetry,” Electronics Letters, Vol. 44, No. 14, 837–838, Jul. 3, 2008.
5. Huang, F. J., C. M. Lee, L. K. Chen, B. M. Jeng, C. L. Chang, T. F. Chien, and C. H. Luo,
“Compact PIFA with three-resonators for dual-band implantable biotelemetry,” 2011 Asia-
Pacific Microwave Conference Proceedings (APMC), 618–621, Dec. 5–8, 2011.
6. Lee, V. M., T. C. Yo, and C. H. Luo, “Compact broadband stacked implantable antenna for
biotelemetry with medical devices,” Proc. IEEE Annu. Wireless Microw. Tech. Conf., 1–4,
Clearwater Beach, FL, Dec. 2006.