Design of a Novel 60 GHz Millimeter Wave Q-Slot Antenna for Body-Centric Communications

Abstract

The 60 GHz band is a great prospect to meet the future demand for short-range indoor communication requiring wide bandwidth and high data rates. This paper presents the design of a 60 GHz printed Q-slot patch antenna for body-centric communication. The Q-slot has a slot gap of 0.2 mm and is etched on a 6.5 mm × 11 mm rectangular patch. The slotted patch is mounted on an FR-4 (Flame Retardant) substrate that is 1.6 mm thick and has a relative permittivity of 4.3. With a partial ground plane of length of 2.2 mm, the antenna’s overall dimension is 12.9 mm × 14 mm × 1.6 mm. Computer Simulation Technology (CST) microwave studio was used to design and simulate the antenna. In free space, the antenna is resonant at 60.06 GHz with an impedance bandwidth of 12.11 GHz. At 60 GHz, the antenna’s radiation efficiency is 82.15%, with a maximum gain of 8.62 dBi. For further analysis, parametric changes were made to observe the effect on return loss, radiation efficiency, and gain. The antenna was simulated on a three-layer human torso phantom for the on-body scenario. The antenna’s resonant frequency shifted slightly to the right at 2 mm distant from the phantom while maintaining a very wide impedance bandwidth. At this point, the antenna’s radiation efficiency dropped to 56.68% and gradually increased to 74.04% at 10 mm. The maximum gain remained largely unaffected, but some grated radiation patterns were observed.