Effect of A Superstrate on On-Head Matched Antennas for Biomedical Applications

The effect of using a superstrate dielectric layer on an on-head matched antenna for biomedical diagnosis applications is investigated. Two on-head matched antennas are considered with different length meandered lines ensuring operation around 0.9 GHz frequency. The first antenna's conductive radiating structure is in direct contact with the head phantom, whereas the second one utilises a 0.5 mm thick superstrate layer on top of the conducting layer as a buffer. The lateral dimensions of both antennas are held constant at 30 x 30 mm(2). The electric and magnetic field distribution is analysed and the power penetration, 50 mm inside the head phantom, is derived from the electromagnetic field surrounding the antennas. Both homogeneous and inhomogeneous head phantoms are considered while evaluating the antennas in terms of their reflection coefficient, current distribution, electric field, magnetic field, specific absorption rate (SAR) and power penetration inside the head. The antennas are fabricated and measured utilizing an inhomogeneous phantom to validate the proposed performance improvement using a superstrate. It is shown that the superstrate antenna achieves a similar to 8 dB increase in power penetration inside the head phantom along with a 0.0731 W/kg decrease in SAR compared to the antenna without a superstrate.