Proceedings of the 40th European Microwave Conference

Design of Wearable Communication Device for

Body Protection from EM wave using the EBG
structure
Sang il Kwak#, Dong-Uk Sim, Jong Hwa Kwon and Hyung Do Choi
#

Radio Technology Research Department, ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute)
138 Gajeongno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-700, KOREA
sikwak@etri.re.kr

Abstract This paper presents a wearable communication device

for body protection from electromagnetic wave using a
electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure at a WCDMA band.
Since wearable wireless communication devices are worked in
the proximity or contact of the human body, a health risk from a
electromagnetic fields generated by body worn devices is
important. The EBG structures can suppress the propagation of
surface current and act as a perfect magnetic conductor. Thus, it
is capable of preventing a undesired electromagnetic wave from
the wireless communication devices. The proposed wearable
communication device has the PIFA with the EBG structure at a
WCDMA band, frequency generator for the SAR testing and a
dielectric case. It is a kind of watch phone worn on the human
wrist. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate Sparameter, radiation pattern and the SAR value of the proposed
structure.

I. INTRODUCTION
Wearable wireless communication system is exciting new
frontier techniques. There are many devices worked in the
proximity or contact of the human body, such as the watch
phone, wearable computing devices, RFID and health care or
monitoring devices, in our life [1][4]. As the devices are used
widely in the human life, the health risks from the
electromagnetic fields are important issue. The study of the
health problem by the electromagnetic wave generated from a
mobile device is in progress in several years [5][6]. To find
out the health problem, the thermal interaction effect of the
human body caused by the electromagnetic wave should be
considered. To investigate the phenomenon, the specific
absorption rate (SAR) which is a defined parameter for
evaluating power absorption in a human tissue is tested. If the
mobile devices have communication services, such as cellular,
PCS and WCDMA, the SAR test must be done by official
certification center and the SAR value must not over the limit
regulated by the international community [7].
Since previous wearable devices are served a low power
consumption services, such as WLAN or RFID, the health
problem from EM waves is not researched widely. But the
wearable devices are offered the communication services such
as WCDMA and it is worn on contact of the body for a long
time, the health problem may be such a important issue in the
future.
The electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) technique is a kind of
handling the electromagnetic properties. Since the EBG has

978-2-87487-016-3 2010 EuMA

high impedance surface at arbitrary frequency, the

characteristics of electromagnetic wave propagation are able
to be changed. The planar EBG structure was introduced and
applied to RF component by Sievenpiper [8]. The EBG is
used for miniaturization of RF structures, enhancement of
antenna gain, suppression of SSN and the SAR reduction in
mobile applications [9][12].
The high impedance of the EBG surface is capable of
suppressing the surface wave propagation and the EM waves
generated by the surface wave are also suppressed. Thus, the
unwanted radiation of EM wave toward the human body
direction will be reduced. And the hazard electromagnetic
fields can be prevented without a degradation of system
performance because the EBG structure is act as a PMC with
enhancing the antenna performance
In this paper, an antenna with the EBG structure for
wearable communication device at a WCDMA band is
proposed. The proposed structure is a PIFA with the slotted
square type of EBG structure, a frequency generator for the
SAR testing and a dielectric case. It is a kind of a watch phone
which is worn on the human wrist. The characteristics of the
proposed structure, such as S-parameter, radiation pattern and
the SAR value, are shown.
II. STRUCTURE
Fig. 1 shows the configuration of the proposed EBG
structure. The EBG without via is act as a AMC and has the
SAR reduction effect in previous works [13]. The unit cell of
the EBG structure consists of a slotted squared patch,
dielectric substrate and ground. Since the EBG structure puts
in limited space of wearable devices and works at a WCDMA
band, a number of slots are inserted. Inserted slots can lower
the frequency band of the EBG structure since currents on the
EBG unit surface have much longer paths. The simulated a
reflection phase of the slotted EBG structure is shown in Fig 2.
The reflection phase characteristic of the EBG unit cell
indicates a PMC operation band [14]. From -900 to 900 of
reflection phase of the proposed EBG unit cell is 1.94 GHz
2.04 GHz. It covers a WCDMA band. Table 1 shows a size of
the EBG unit cell. It is fabricate on Taconic CER-10
(Er=10.2) with a thickness of 1.57 mm. The proposed EBG
structure is 3 x 7 of unit cell array. It positions between PIFA
and shielding metal of frequency generator, as shown in Fig. 3.

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28-30 September 2010, Paris, France

Fig.1 Configuration of the proposed EBG

(a)

Fig.2 Reflection phase of the proposed EBG unit cell

TABLE I
SIZE OF THE PROPOSED EBG UNIT CELL

Parameter
W
T
L

Value [mm]
17.5
0.6
3

Parameter
G
S
R

Value [mm]
0.4
0.5
2.4

(b)
Fig. 3. Geometry of the proposed PIFA: (a) Top view, (b) side view

The geometry of the proposed antenna is in Fig. 3. The

structure is composed of PIFA, feeding structure, shorting
pins connected to the same ground plane of the EBG structure.
To compare of an antenna performances, a conventional PIFA
without the EBG structure is also designed for a WCDMA
band. As shown in Fig 3, the total wearable communication
device is multilayer structure, such as PIFA, the slotted EBG,
a shielding case and a frequency generator. The proposed
PIFA is fabricated on the substrate with 0.017 mm copper,
3.14 mm substrate thickness and dielectric constant of 3.5
(Taconic RF35). Table 2 presents a size of the proposed PIFA
with the EBG structure. In case of a conventional PIFA, size
of Wr, Wa and Wu is 2 mm, 18.8 mm and 20 mm,
respectively. Other values are the same of the proposed PIFA
with the EBG structure.

Geometry of a frequency generator for the SAR testing and

a case is shown in Fig. 4 (a). A frequency generator is
designed for the SAR testing at a transmitting WCDMA band
of 1.96 GHz, 1.97 GHz and 1.98 GHz. Since the maximum
power of a WCDMA mobile phone is 25 dBm, each device
has 0.3162 Watt of output power during the SAR testing. A
metal shielding case is used for cooling the heat during a
frequency generator is working. The test case is square type
based on dielectric substrate (Er=3.5, conductivity=0.02). The
fabricated of the wearable communication test device is
shown in Fig. 4 (c).

TABLE II
SIZE OF THE PROPOSED PIFA STRUCTURE

Parameter
Wa
Ws
We
Wt
Wf
Wu

Value [mm]
15.5
54
17.5
19.9
2.5
22.4

Parameter
La
Ls
Le
Lf
Wr

Value [mm]
10
24
3
7
3

(a)

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The radiation patterns are shown in Fig. 6. In the xz plane,

from 900 to 2700 is the direction of human body. As shown in
Fig. 6(a), the effect of the electromagnetic wave is decreased
since a radiation pattern is reduced. Fig 6(b) shows the
radiation pattern of the PIFA and the PIFA using the EBG
with the hand phantom in the yz plane. The proposed structure
is designed for wearable communication device on the human
wrist as shown in Fig. 6(c). The hand phantom consist of
equivalent human tissue liquid (Er=40, conductivity=1.4). In
the yz plane, from 900 to 2700 is also the direction of human
body and the effect of the reduction of electromagnetic wave
toward the human body is also shown.

(b)

(c)
Fig. 4. The porposed wearable communication device: (a) Geometry of the
proposed structure, (b) Simulation set up of the porposed strucuture, (c)
Picture of the proposed the wearable communication test device.

III. RESULTS
Fig. 5 shows a return loss of the proposed PIFA with the
EBG structure. The bandwidth at -10 dB of return loss of the
conventional PIFA and the proposed PIFA with the EBG is
1.95 GHz 1.98 GHz and 1.96 GHz 1.99 GHz, respectively.
All results are satisfied the WCDMA operation band.

(a)

(b)
Fig. 5. Return loss of the proposed antenna

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a dielectric case. The results show reduction of radiation

pattern toward the human body direction and the SAR value.
Thus, the proposed PIFA with the EBG structure can protect
the body from the hazard EM fields generated by the
communication devices.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the IT R&D program of
MKE/KCC/KEIT. [KI001685, Study on Diagnosis and
Protection Technology based on EM].
(c)
Fig. 6. Radiation pattern: (a) measured pattern in the xz plane, (b)
simulated pattern in the yz plane with hand phantom, (c) the proposed
structure with hand phantom.

Table 3 shows a simulated the SAR value. For evaluating

the effect on the human body exposure by the EM fields
generated from the handheld and body-mounted wireless
devices, the SAR value is tested using a flat phantom. In this
paper, the SAR value is tested in the center of the flat
phantom which consist of liquid (Er=40, = 1.4). The SAR
value of the proposed PIFA with the EBG structure is down
by 38% in comparison with the conventional PIFA at center
frequency. From the results, the proposed PIFA with the EBG
structure can protect the body from the unwanted EM waves.
All structures are simulated using CST microwave studio
based on 3D FIT EM simulator [15].

REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
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[7]

TABLE III
SAR VALUES

Type
Conventional
PIFA
The Proposed
PIFA with the
EBG

[8]

SAR (10g, Avg.) [W/kg]

Frequency
Value
Reduction
[GHz]
[W/kg]
Rate [%]
1.96
0.274
100
1.97
0.274
100
1.98
0.267
100
1.96
0.169
61.9
1.97
0.172
62.9
1.98
0.164
61.4

[9]

[10]

[11]

IV. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a wearable communication device
antenna with the EBG structure for the protection of the
human body from the EM fields at a WCDMA band. The
EBG structure has high impedance surfaces and band stop
characteristics at arbitrary frequency, the characteristic of
electromagnetic wave propagation can change. The proposed
structure is a PIFA based on the slotted square type of the
EBG structure, a frequency generator for the SAR testing and

[12]

[13]
[14]
[15]

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