A wearable patch antenna is investigated in this thesis. In particular, a patch antenna that can be borne on a human head is investigated by assessing its performance in free space and in proximity to a human head. The antenna is a self-structuring patch antenna placed conformal with a curved surface. An integral part of the antenna system is a set of switches connected from the patch surface to the ground plane. Changes in the electrical shape of the antenna can be achieved by changing the switch configurations. This allows for effective use of the antenna even in the vicinity of the human body despite the resulting coupling effects.Simulations were carried out on the antenna in free space between 1 GHz and 2 GHz. Furthermore, simulations were run with the antenna in proximity to a human head model over the same frequency range. A genetic algorithm is used to search effectively through the large number of switch states for antenna configurations with desirable performance. Measurements that were carried out on a fabricated prototype antenna are presented. Experiments were performed with the antenna in free space. Random search measurements were undertaken to gain a general sense of the impedance distribution of the antenna states. Finally, targeted genetic-algorithm based optimizations were carried out at specific frequencies.
Read
