A Wearable Low-SAR Meandered Monopole Antenna Loaded With a Compact Backed AMC for Conformal Wearable Applications

A compact, low-profile conformal fabric meandered monopole antenna with an integrated Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) is proposed for wearable applications operating at 2.4 GHz. The AMC exhibits in-phase and bandgap characteristics that replicate the properties of a Perfect Magnetic Conductor (PMC), effectively suppressing surface waves and significantly enhancing the antenna's performance. The design was fabricated and tested, showing excellent agreement between simulated and measured results. The proposed design has an overall dimension of 40×32×2.4 mm³. Compared to previously reported AMC antennas, this proposed design offers a 30.8% reduction in size and provides a bandwidth of 21.25% ranging from 2.12 to 2.63 GHz. The AMC antenna achieves a gain of 7.85 dBi at 2.4 GHz, efficiency of 89.3 % and a front-to-back ratio (FBR) of 17.2 dB, with over a 95% reduction in Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), even at high input power levels of 1000 mW with direct skin contact. Numerical and experimental results further confirm that the AMC-integrated antenna maintains stable performance under human body loading and structural deformation. These features make this proposed antenna a promising candidate for wearable systems, particularly in biomedical applications.