Improved Microstrip Patch Antenna Design for High Gain and Low Noise

Identifying the driver's sleep deprivation during driving is crucial to prevent fatal accidents. Wireless RF bio signal extractions help a lot in identifying the same more accurately. PCB antenna currently used for the same purpose can be replaced with a more effective antenna for better acquisition of the bio-signals like ECG which reflects the conscious condition of the driver very well. Therefore, in this proposed work, we designed an array of microstrip patch antenna for improved acquisition, especially for ECG with less noise interference. First, a single-element microstrip antenna of 20x20 mm
²
and thickness 0.8 mm on FR4-epoxy dielectric substrate at resonant frequency 6 GHz is designed. At the resonant frequency, the return loss or S11 parameter is -21.50 dB and -10 dB below from 5.79 GHz to 6.21 GHz. For the single-element antenna, the maximum gain observed is 9.39 dB. Using the designed single microstrip patch antenna, a 4x4 array antenna is designed and a maximum gain of 20.4 dB is achieved. It gives reduced noise with the reduced number of side lobes which in turn can increase the acquisition performance of the ECG compared with the PCB antenna, which leads to reliable usage in the future. The gain has been improved 3.4 times compared to the gain of the currently used PCB antenna. Thus, a high-performance microstrip patch antenna array is designed for application in the above-stated problem.