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Dual-Band Textile MIMO Antenna Based on

Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) Technology
Sen Yan, Ping Jack Soh, Member, IEEE, and Guy A. E. Vandenbosch Fellow, IEEE

comparison to established printed circuit board (PCB)

Abstract—A dual-band textile antenna for multiple–input technology, which is translated into the fact that textile
–multiple-output (MIMO) applications, based on substrate antennas benefit from a simple topology.
integrated waveguide technology (SIW), is designed. The In order to reduce coupling between antenna and human
fundamental SIW cavity mode is designed to resonate at 2.4 GHz.
body, normally a piece of metalized layer is placed between
Meanwhile, the second and third mode are modified and
combined by careful placement of a via within the cavity to enable them. Based on this principle, two antenna types are widely
wideband coverage in the 5 GHz WLAN band. The simple proposed as textile antennas, i.e. patch antennas [3-7] and
antenna topology can be fabricated fully using textiles in a planar reflector antennas [8-11]. The patch antenna is popular due to
form, ensuring reliability and comfort. Numerical and its low profile, simple topology, low backward radiation and
experimental results indicate satisfactory antenna performance low specific absorption ratio (SAR). However, these antennas
when worn on body in terms of impedance bandwidth, radiation
are intrinsically narrow band. The design of dual-band or
efficiency, and specific absorption ratio (SAR). In order to
validate its potential for MIMO applications, two elements of the wideband patch antennas typically employs slots or parasitic
proposed SIW antenna are arranged in six configurations to study patches. This could distort the targeted field distribution and
the performance in terms of mutual coupling and envelope radiation pattern. Moreover, the integration of multiple slots on
correlation. It is observed that the placement of the shorted edges the radiators might complicate the structure and consequently,
of the two elements adjacent to each other produces the lowest the fabrication. On the other hand, reflector antennas are
mutual coupling and consequently the best envelope correlation.
formed by placing a dipole or monopole over or near to a
Index Terms—wearable antenna, textile antenna, MIMO
reflector. In general, an electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) or
antenna, substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) antenna, artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) plane is used as the planar
dual-band antenna reflector to minimize the total height of the antenna. These
reflector antennas are usually wide band, but the reflectors may
result in a larger antenna size, besides the more complex
I. INTRODUCTION fabrication resulting from the integration of periodic structures.
In recent years, wearable devices are becoming increasingly More recently, the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)
important in the fields of physical training, emergency rescue structure has been employed in the design of textile antennas
services, and health monitoring for children and the elderly. A [12-15]. Such antennas are usually designed as a cavity antenna
key component of these devices is the wearable antenna, which with an additional slot radiator [12] or an open radiative
is used to wirelessly transfer the data from on-body sensors to a boundary [13]. The dual band operation can be obtained by
central database/computing facility. Considering the comfort using additional slots [14] or loading with metamaterials [15].
and robustness aspects, textile is a good candidate for the Moreover, their textile-compliant properties, like low profile,
design of wearable antennas. However, designing and simple topology, and relatively wide bandwidth, make SIW
operating a textile antenna on the human body brings several antennas good candidates for many applications. On top, the
design challenges. [1,2] The first and inevitable challenge is to SAR values are also relatively low since the ground shields the
cope with the antenna deformations when worn on body. Steps body. To improve the performance of wearable antennas in a
need to be taken to ensure that its performance does not change multipath fading environment, several beam steering antennas
disastrously. The second issue is the coupling between the were also studied. [16, 17]
antenna and the human body, which does affect antenna In this paper, a textile antenna based on the SIW technology
performance and could possibly influence the users' health. is proposed. A via is introduced to modify the waveguide cavity
Other challenges include the larger fabrication tolerances in resonant modes. Two wide bands are obtained suited for
dual-band WLAN operation. The antenna is fully fabricated
Manuscript submitted Dec. 1st, 2014. using textile materials, except for an SMA connector used for
S. Yan and G. A. E. Vandenbosch are with the ESAT-TELEMIC Research feeding. The performance of the antenna is first evaluated in
Div., Dept. of Electrical Eng., KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, Box 2444,
3001 Leuven, Belgium; e-mail:[email protected]). free space, and then on body. Reflection coefficients, radiation
P. J. Soh is with the Advanced Communication Engineering (ACE) CoE, properties and SAR levels are both numerically calculated and
The School of Computer and Communication Engineering, Universiti Malaysia experimentally measured. Then, a two-element antenna array is
Perlis (UniMAP), Pauh Putra Campus, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
investigated for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO)
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. applications, which will boost data rates, mitigate interference
doi:

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adhesive on its reverse side, which can be used to secure it onto

the felt substrate. This is performed by heating the material

30
using an iron. In this work, the overall structure is dimensioned
using manual cutting tools. To ensure accuracy, the shorting
wall and the top patch are cut from a single piece of textile prior
to careful bending and placement over the curvature of the felt.
W The vias are fabricated using cylindrical wires of 0.53 mm in
diameter. A standard SMA connector, with an inner diameter of
Fy

1.25 mm is used for feeding the antenna. In real applications,

such vias can be fabricated using soft metallic threads, whereas
Vy

the standard SMAs can be replaced by mini connectors. These

30

will then make the antenna more attractive by providing extra

flexibility and robustness during the washing or folding
processes.
h

The width, length and height of the antenna cavity are named
as W, L and h, respectively. Two perpendicular edges of the
(a)
cavity are open and the other two edges of the cavity are shorted.
This cavity can be viewed as a half SIW with open/shorted
boundary, or as a half shorted patch antenna. Nevertheless, the
resonant frequencies of a cavity can be calculated as follows
[22],

2 2 2
c  2m − 1   2 n − 1   l 
f mnl =   +  +  , (1)
2 εr  2 L   2W   h 
(b) (c)
Fig. 1. Topology of proposed antenna. (a) design dimensions (unit: mm),
(b) photo of prototype, (c) on-body antenna measurement.
where c is the speed of light in free space, εr is the dielectric
constant of the substrate while m, n, and l are the wave numbers
TABLE I in x, y and z direction, respectively. Since the thickness of the
PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA IN FIG. 1 (UNIT MM) substrate is always much smaller than the wavelength, the l
wave number is taken as 0.
h W L Fx Fy Vx Vy To obtain an optimal miniaturization, the lowest mode TM110
must be designed around 2.4 GHz and the TM210 and TM120
3 41.9 32.3 20.8 16.4 18 6 modes must be located between 5 and 6 GHz. To obtain a wide
band coverage in the 5 GHz band for WLAN applications, it is
and overcome multipath phenomena for indoor necessary then to combine the two latter modes together.
communications [18,19]. Different orientations of the MIMO However, positioning the resonant frequencies of the three
antenna are considered in order to obtain the best isolation and modes simultaneously is not straightforward, as basically there
envelope correlation. The main feature of this design is the very are only two antenna parameters available for tuning, W and L.
high isolation between the two antenna elements in both To overcome this problem, a via is employed in the cavity to
WLAN bands. To the best knowledge of the authors, modify these modes. By perturbing the field properly, the two
high-isolation textile arrays have not been studied before. higher frequency modes may combine, forming a wide band.
The paper is organized as follows. The antenna topology and The cavity is centered on a ground, 30 mm larger than the
the materials are introduced in the first section. Next, the radiator at each side, to reduce antenna backward radiation and
antenna performance in free space and on body is discussed in to ensure low SAR values. In our study, six cavity parameters
sections II and III, respectively. Finally, the two element were identified to influence the antenna performance
MIMO antenna is studied in section IV, prior to the conclusion. significantly: the width and length of the cavity W and L, the
location of the via Vx and Vy, and the location of the feeding
II. ANTENNA TOPOLOGY point Fx and Fy. These parameters were optimized using CST
Microwave Studio [23] in order to obtain the best impedance
The proposed antenna topology is shown in Fig. 1. The matching within the two WLAN operating bands. The optimal
antenna is formed fully using textile materials. A 3 mm thick dimensions are listed in Table 1. A comparison of the structures
felt is used as the substrate, whose dielectric constant (εr) and with and without via is displayed in Fig. 2 (a). It can be seen
loss tangent (tan δ) are 1.3 and 0.044, respectively. [20] The that the addition of the via modified the resonant frequencies
metallic layers are formed by a 0.17 mm thick ShieldIt Super and improved the impedance matching in the upper band,
conductive textile with an estimated conductivity of 1.18 × 105 resulting in two wide operating bands, around 2.4 GHz and 5.5
S/m. [21] This conductive textile has a layer of hot melt GHz.

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-5

-10
S11 (dB)

-15

-20

-25 with via

w/o via
-30
2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz)
(a)
0

-5 Fig. 3. Magnetic field distributions at 2.45 GHz, 5.2 GHz, and 5.8 GHz.

-10
S11 (dB)

-15

-20 sim. free space

sim. on body
-25 mea. free space
mea. on body
-30
2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz)
(b)
Fig. 2 Reflection coefficients. (a)Simulated reflection coefficients with
and without via; (b) Simulated and measured reflection coefficients.

The simulated magnetic field distributions at 2.45 GHz, 5.2

GHz and 5.8 GHz are shown in Fig. 3. Three modes can be
clearly distinguished. The additional via slightly perturbs the
modes, which helps to improve the impedance matching in the
upper band.

III. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE

A prototype of the antenna was fabricated and is shown in
Fig. 1 (b). The simulated and measured reflection coefficients
are displayed in Fig. 2 (b). The agreement is almost perfect. The
simple topology of the antenna considerably contributes to this
very good result. The lower band is from 2.367 GHz to 2.530
GHz (163 MHz of impedance bandwidth) when simulated and
from 2.361 GHz to 2.518 GHz (157 MHz of bandwidth) when
measured. The upper band is from 5.147 GHz to 5.863 GHz Fig. 4 Simulated and measured radiation patterns: (a) 3D at 2.45 GHz, (d)
(716 MHz) when simulated, and from 5.176 GHz to 5.843 GHz 3D at 5.5 GHz, (b) and (e) φ = 45°, (c) and (f) φ = 135°.
(667 MHz) when measured. This agreement is remarkable,
given the higher tolerances for manually fabricated prototypes.
The radiation patterns are shown in Fig. 4, indicating a relatively high, this is not a serious issue in a WLAN
forward-directed beam in both bands. Due to the orientation of communication system [24-27] since the propagation channel
the cavity slots, the E-plane is oriented almost along the is usually multipath, especially in an indoor system. The total
diagonal of the patch (at φ = 52°). The radiation patterns at φ = efficiency and realized gain of the antenna are listed in Table II.
45° and φ = 135° are shown. Although the cross polarization is The total efficiency is above 55 % and 60 % in the lower and

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TABLE II
COMPARISON OF SIMULATED AND MEASURED PERFORMANCE.

Matching band BW ηrad Gain

(MHz) (MHz) (%) (dB)

Lower Sim. 2367 ～ 2530 163 55 3.2

band
Free
Mea. 2361 ～ 2518 157 / 2.9
space
Upper Sim. 5147 ～ 5863 716 61 5.8
band
Mea. 5176 ～ 5843 667 / 5.0

Lower Sim. 2374 ～ 2535 161 50 2.0

band
On Mea. 2359 ～ 2519 160 / /
body
Upper Sim. 5154 ～ 5867 713 58 5.6
band
Mea. 5188 ～ 5859 671 / /
Fig. 6. Simulated reflection coefficients under bending.

has been discussed in [28,29]. The properties of each tissue

layer are listed in Table III. In order to ensure a proper coupling
between the human tissue and the antenna, the tissue area is
sufficiently sized at 250 × 250 mm2. This is to enable at least a
quarter wavelength distance (based on the lower band) between
the outer perimeters of the antenna and the human tissue model.
A 5 mm gap above the tissue model mimics the thickness of any
air gap and clothes in a real situation.
The calculated and measured reflection coefficients in free
space and on a real human volunteer's chest (Fig. 1 (c)) are
plotted in Fig. 2 (b). Due to the existence of the full rear ground
plane which totally shields the human body, the antenna
impedance bandwidth is quite immune to the body when
Fig. 5 The human tissue model. evaluated numerically and experimentally. Nonetheless, a
slight decrease in the total efficiency is observed. The antenna
TABLE III
PROPERTIES OF HUMAN TISSUES
is insensitive to the antenna-to-body gap, since the human body
is totally isolated from the antenna by the large ground.
Moreover, changes to the gap caused by the human movement
tissues skin fat muscle
will also not influence the results.
density (kg/m3) 1100 910 1041 The SAR values are calculated based on the IEEE C95.1
standard in CST MWS with an antenna input power of 0.5 W
2.45 GHz 38.05 5.302 53.08
ε’
(rms) and are averaged over 10 g of human tissue. The
5.5 GHz 35.68 5.004 49.66 calculated value is only 0.056 W/kg and 0.067 W/kg at 2.45
GHz and 5.5 GHz, respectively, far below the European
2.45 GHz 10.73 0.775 12.89
ε” threshold of 2 W/kg.
5.5GHz 11.82 1.032 16.99 The antenna is studied numerically under different bending
situations, see Fig. 6. Two different bending orientations are
thickness (mm) planar 3 7 60
analyzed using two different cylindrical radii, 40 mm and 80
mm. Generally, the antenna operating band will move upwards
upper band, respectively, reflecting the typical efficiency levels towards higher frequencies when bent. As the bending radius is
for such type of textile materials [3-5,7,11,15]. The main reason smaller, a larger shift will be observed. The reason is that
for this efficiency level is the loss of the textile materials, which bending will reduce the effective length of the surface current
is higher compared to conventional rigid dielectric materials. on the antenna. In the lower band, the x-direction bending
(bend 1) causes more frequency shift compared to bending in
IV. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE ON BODY the y-direction (bend 2), and this is vice versa in the upper band.
However, the maximum shift is only 3.4 % and 4.7 % for the
To validate the on body performance, the antenna is lower and upper band, respectively. In all situations, the voltage
simulated in proximity of a human tissue model as shown in Fig. standing wave ratio (VSWR) is always smaller than 3 (S11 < -6
5. The model consists of three layers, 3 mm thick skin, 7 mm dB) in both WLAN operating bands. The radiation efficiency of
thick fat, and 60 mm thick muscle. The validity of this model

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(a) (b) -15 a

b
-20
c
-25 d
d d e

S12 (dB)
-30
f
(c) (d) -35
-40
-45
d d -50
2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz)
(e) (f) (a)

0.1
a
b

Envelope Correlation
d d 0.08
c
Fig. 7. Orientation of the two antennas. d
0.06
e
the antenna remains similar to the one of a planar antenna. The f
0.04
gain is decreased by about 1 to 2 dB due to the increase of the
beam width caused by the bending.
Another possible deformation is a compression of the felt 0.02
substrate. This results in a slightly larger cavity size due to the
bending outwards of the wall and consequently in a downward 0
2 3 4 5 6
frequency shift. A solution is to ensure that the conductive Frequency (GHz)
textile is securely fastened to the felt substrate to effectively (b)
minimize such deformation, in this way improving the antenna Fig. 8. Simulation of the two-antenna array with different orientations. The
performance robustness. distance between the antennas is 10 mm. (a) cross coupling; (b) envelope
correlation.

V. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION FOR MIMO APPLICATIONS

To increase the data rates and reduce power consumption for * S +S* S 2
S11 21 21 22
wearable electronic devices, several of the proposed antennas ρ ≈
e
. (2)
can be combined for MIMO applications. A combination of (1− S11 2 − S21 2 )(1− S22 2 − S12 2 )
two antenna elements is studied in this paper. To decrease the
inter-element coupling, it is important to locate the shorted The results are summarized in Fig. 8 (b). For antenna diversity,
edges of these two antennas adjacent to each other. Six the practically acceptable envelope correlation should be less
configurations of this two-element antenna array are studied, as than 0.5. In this investigation, the calculated envelope
shown in Fig. 7. The distance between the antennas is fixed at correlations for all six configurations are less than 4 × 10-3 and
10 mm. In general, the reflection coefficients (S11 and S22) for 2 × 10-4 in the lower and upper operating frequency band,
all configurations differ only marginally. However, there is a respectively. This extremely high isolation between the two
larger difference in terms of cross coupling (S21 = S12) between antennas is mainly due to the shorted edges of the cavity and
different set-ups, see Fig. 8 (a). The three right configurations their orientation with respect to each other. The coupling
in Fig. 7 yield a lower coupling compared to the three between the shorted edges is much smaller than the coupling
corresponding left configurations due to the longer propagation between the two open edges of conventional patches. This can
paths between the radiating edges, which are the open considerably help to improve the signal quality in a MIMO
boundaries of the cavity. The two configurations with the communication system.
lowest couplings in the respective bands are exactly the ones Next, the distance between the two antennas is studied. The
where the two elements are rotated over 180 degrees with antennas are oriented as in Fig. 7 (b), and the distance between
respect to each other. Configuration (f) gives the lowest the two antennas is changed from 0 mm to 20 mm. The
coupling in the lower band, whereas configuration (b) produces simulated results are given in Fig. 9. The coupling between the
the lowest coupling in the upper band. antennas is expected to increase with the decrease in distance.
The envelope correlation of the combination can be However, the existence of the shorting wall on the SIW cavity
calculated from their S-parameters [18, 19]

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-15
d = 0 mm
-20 d = 5 mm
-25 d = 10 mm
d = 20 mm
S12(dB)

-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
2 3 4 5 6 (a)
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 9. Simulated S12 of the two-antenna array in Fig. 7(b) with different 0
distances.

-10 sim. S11=S22

sim. S12=S21

S parameters (dB)
-20 mea. S11
mea. S22

-30 mea. S12=S21

-40

-50
2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz)
(b)
Fig. 11. (a) Fabricated prototype of the antenna array in Fig. 7(b); and (b)
Fig. 10. Simulated two-antenna array under bending, with d = 10 mm, r = 40 simulated and measured S parameters.
mm.

structure minimizes this coupling, ensuring that the overall Fig. 11 (b). Again, the measured S parameters agree very well
antenna is not easily affected by the changing distance between with simulated ones. The coupling between the two antenna
elements. Even when the two antennas are directly placed in elements (S12) is below -18 dB and -35 dB in the lower and
contact with each other (d = 0 mm), the maximum S12 is only upper band, respectively. The measured envelope correlation
-18 dB and -32 dB in the lower and upper band, respectively. based on formula (2) has the same order of magnitude as the
The bending investigation is also extended to study the simulated one. The main conclusion is that the high isolation of
two-antenna array in Fig. 7(b). The distance between the this antenna makes it suitable for MIMO applications.
antennas is fixed at 10 mm and the bending radius (r) at 40 mm, A brief illustration of the state-of-the-art of the isolation in
similar to the radius of a typical upper arm. In Fig. 10, the two MIMO antennas is given in Table IV. In off-body mobile
investigated array orientations result in different behaviors. communication systems, monopole/dipole antennas are widely
Bending configuration 1 results in a reduced coupling between used because of their relatively wide bandwidth. Several
the two antenna elements in both the lower and upper bands. isolation methods have been used to reduce the coupling
This is mainly due to the diverging beam directions from each between the antenna elements, for examples, a decoupling stub
antenna towards different spatial angles. Conversely, when the [30], slots on the ground [31], characteristic modes on ground
array is bent as in configuration 2, the S12 is similar to the one in [32], a metamaterial isolator [33], polarization and space
the planar case in the lower band, but increases by diversity [18,34]. The isolation of some of these designs is very
approximately 5 dB in the upper band. This is due to the high. However, they are not suitable for wearable applications,
radiating edges of the antennas, which are closely located to mainly due to the absence of a ground plane, which will cause
each other, despite their divergent beams. Although not high coupling between the antenna and human body, in this
exhaustive, the results from this study provide a general way reducing the radiation efficiency and increase the SAR
guideline when deploying the antenna on the human body. value. Ref. [35] presents a UWB dipole antenna with ground
A prototype of the antenna array as in Fig. 7 (b) was plane where the isolation between the antennas reaches 40 dB.
fabricated, see Fig. 11 (a). The measured results are shown in However, the profile of the antenna is too high for wearable

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TABLE IV
COMPARISON OF SEVERAL MIMO ANTENNAS
*

Reference Element distance Isolation

Antenna type Operating band (GHz) Isolation methods
number (mm) λl* (dB)
[30] Monopole 2.4,5.8 12 0.096 20 Shorted stub
[31] Broadband loop antenna 1.7-2.7, 4.7-8.5 12.8 0.0725 15 Slots on ground
[32] Meander line antenna 3.3 - 6 15 0.165 20 Characteristic modes on ground
[33] Monopole 0.84, 2.3- 2.98 14 0.0392 10 Metamaterial isolator
[18] Monopole 2.4, 5.4, 5.8 10 0.08 14 Polarization diversity
[34] Quasi-complementary antenna 2 – 5.6 73 0.487 19 space diversity
[35] UWB dipole 0.7 – 2.7 95 0.222 40 Additional resistive sheets
[36] PIFA 0.77, 2.55 11 0.0282 15 Dual band defected ground
[37] PIFA 2.4, 3.5 1 0.008 19 Slots on ground
[38] Patch antenna 5.22 16 0.278 55 Metamaterial isolator
Proposed SIW cavity antenna 2.4, 5.15 - 5.85 10 0.08 20 Polarization diversity and shorted edges
λl is the wavelength at the lowest operating frequency

applications. Further, the additional resistive sheets between Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol.61, no.12, pp.6195-6200,
Dec. 2013.
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proposed topology is an excellent candidate. profile metasurface-enabled antenna for wearable medical body-area
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A dual-band textile antenna is designed based on the SIW and Compact AMC Based Antenna for Telemedicine Applications,"
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[20] "Specification Sheet - Felt Sheet," RS Components Inc., 2013. wearable devices and textile antennas and microwave chiral metasurface.
[21] "Specification Sheet – ShieldIt Super," LessEMF Inc., 2013.
[22] D. M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering 3rd Ed., chapter 6, pp. 279, Wiley Ping Jack Soh (S'10 M'14 SM'15) was born in
India Pvt. Limited, 2009. Sabah, Malaysia. He received the Bachelor and
[23] Computer Simulation Technology (CST), Microwave Studio [Online]. Master degrees in Electrical Engineering
Available: https://www.cst.com/Products/CSTMWS. (Telecommunication) from Universiti Teknologi
[24] B. K. Raj, M. Joseph, C. K. Aanandan, K. Vasudevan, and P. Mohanan, Malaysia (UTM) in 2002 and 2006, respectively,
"A New Compact Microstrip-Fed Dual-Band Coplanar Antenna for and the Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from
WLAN Applications," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, KU Leuven, Belgium in 2013.
vol. 54, no.12, pp. 3755-3762, Dec. 2014. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of
[25] T.-H. Kim, and D.-C. Park, "Compact Dual-Band Antenna with Double Computer and Communication Engineering
L-Slits for WLAN operations," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation (SCCE), Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) and
Letters, vol. 4, pp. 249-252, 2005. the Deputy Dean of the university's Research
[26] Q. Luo, J. R. Pereira, and H. M. Salgado, "Compact Printed Monopole Management and Innovation Center (RMIC). From
Antenna with Chip Inductor for WLAN," IEEE Antennas and Wireless 2002 to 2004, he was a Test Engineer in Venture
Propagation Letters, vol. 10, pp. 880-883, 2011. Corp., Johor Bahru, Malaysia, working on new products’ test solutions for
[27] C.-C. Lin, L.-C. Kuo, and H.-R. Chuang, "A Horizontally Polarized manufacturing purposes, both hardware and software. In 2005, he joined
Omnidirectional Printed Antenna for WLAN Applications," IEEE Motorola Solutions, Penang, Malaysia as an R&D Engineer for Electrical
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 54, no.11, pp. Design. There, he worked on the characterization and testing of new two-way
3551-3556, Nov. 2014. radios’ antennas and RF front-ends. From 2006, he joined SCCE-UniMAP as a
[28] P. J. Soh, G. A. E. Vandenbosch, F. H. Wee, A. van den Bosch, M. Lecturer, and was also the Deputy Director of the Centre for Industrial
Martinez-Vazquez, and D. Schreurs, "Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) Collaboration (CIC) between 2007 and 2009. He went on leave from UniMAP
Evaluation of Textile Antennas", IEEE Antennas and Propagation in 2009 to pursue his Ph.D and research attachment in KU Leuven, Belgium.
Magazine, vol. 57, no. 3, June 2015. Affiliated to the ESAT-TELEMIC Research Division, Dept. of Electrical
[29] J. Gemio, J. Parron, and J. Soler, "Human Body Effects on Implantable Engineering, he was first a Research Assistant (2009-2013), and then a
Antennas for ISM Band Applications: Models Comparison and Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2013-2014) and is currently an External
Propagation Losses Study," Prog. in Electromagn. Res., vol. 110, pp. Research Affiliate. Within the Ph.D, he was also involved in antenna design
437-452, 2010. and characterization for AGFA Healthcare, Mortsel, Belgium, which resulted
[30] X. Ling and R. Li, "A Novel Dual-Band MIMO Antenna Array With Low in a filed European patent. His research interest includes the design,
Mutual Coupling for Portable Wireless Devices," IEEE Antennas and development and modeling of flexible, textile, conformal and planar antennas,
Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 10, pp. 1039-1042, 2011. on-body communications, metamaterials and microwave measurements.
[31] X. Zhou, X. Quan, and R. Li, "A Dual-Broadband MIMO Antenna Dr. Soh was the recipient of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society
System for GSM/UMTS/LTE and WLAN Handsets," IEEE Antennas and (AP-S) Doctoral Research Award in 2012, the IEEE Microwave Theory and
Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 11, pp. 551-554, 2012. Techniques Society (MTT-S) Graduate Fellowship for Medical Applications in
[32] C.G.M. Ryan, and G.V. Eleftheriades, "Two compact, wideband, and 2013 and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Young Scientist
decoupled meander-line antennas based on metamaterial concepts," IEEE Award in 2015. He was also the second place winner of the IEEE Presidents'
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 11, pp. 1277-1280, Change the World Competition and IEEE MTT-S Video Competition, both in
2012. 2013. Two of his authored journals were also awarded the CST University
[33] M. S. Sharawi, A. B. Numan, and D. N. Aloi, "Isolation Improvement in a Publication Award in 2012 and 2011.
Dual-Band Dual-element MIMO Antenna System using Capaci-tively
loaded loops," Prog. in Electromagn. Res., vol. 134, pp. 247-266, 2013.
[34] M. Sonkki, E. Antonino-Daviu, M. Cabedo-Fabres, M. Ferrando-Bataller, Guy A. E. VANDENBOSCH received the M.S.
and E.T. Salonen, "Improved Planar Wideband Antenna Element and Its and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from
Usage in a Mobile MIMO System," IEEE Antennas and Wireless the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven,
Propagation Letters, vol. 11, pp. 826-829, 2012. Belgium, in 1985 and 1991, respectively. Since
[35] E. Yetisir, C.C. Chen and J.L. Volakis, "Low profile UWB 2-port antenna 1993, he has been a Lecturer, and since 2005, a
with high isolation," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Full Professor at the same university. Guy
vol. 13, pp. 55-58, 2014. Vandenbosch has teached or teaches courses on
[36] M. Han and J. Choi, "Dual-band MIMO antenna using a symmetric “Electromagnetic Waves”, “Antennas”,
slotted structure for 4G USB dongle application," Antennas and “Electromagnetic Compatibility”, “Electrical
propagation (APSURSI), 2011 IEEE International Symposium on, pp. Engineering, Electronics, and Electrical Energy”,
2223-2226, 3-8 July 2011. and ”Digital Steer- and Measuring Techniques in
[37] S. Zhang, B.K. Lau, Y. Tan, Z. Ying, and S. He, "Mutual coupling Physics”. His research interests are in the area of
reduction of two PIFAs with a T-shape slot impedance transformer for electromagnetic theory, computational electromagnetics, planar antennas and
mobile terminals," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. circuits, nano-electromagnetics, EM radiation, EMC, and bio-electromagnetics.
60, no.3, pp. 1521-1531, March 2012. His work has been published in ca. 225 papers in international journals and has
[38] A. Habashi, J. Nourinia, and C. Ghobadi, "Mutual Coupling Reduction lead to ca. 320 presentations at international conferences. From 2001 to 2007,
between Very Closely Spaced Patch Antennas Using Low-Profile Folded he was the President of SITEL, the Belgian Society of Engineers in
Split-Ring Resonators (FSRRs)," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Telecommunication and Electronics. From 2008 - 2014, he was a member of
Propagation Letters, vol. 10, pp. 862-865, 2011. the board of FITCE Belgium, the Belgian branch of the Federation of
Telecommunications Engineers of the European Union. In the period
1999-2004, he was vice-chairman, and in the period 2005-2009 secretary of the
Sen Yan was born in Xianyang, China. He IEEE Benelux Chapter on Antennas en Propagation. Currently he holds the
received the Bachelor and Master degrees in position of chairman of this Chapter. In the period 2002-2004 he was secretary
Information and Telecommunication engineering of the IEEE Benelux Chapter on EMC. In the period 2012-2014 he was
from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 2007 secretary of the Belgian National Committee for Radio-electricity (URSI),
and 2010, respectively, and the Ph.D degree in where he is also in charge of commission E. From September to December
Electrical Engineering from KU Leuven, Belgium 2014, he was a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
in 2015.
He is currently a research assistant in KU
Leuven and his current research is focused on
Antennas designed based on metamaterials,

0018-926X (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
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