On the design of wearable and epidermal antennas for emerging medical applications

Recent years have witnessed rapid growth in medical applications based on wearable devices and sensors, which is attributed mainly due to the progress in wireless technologies and antennas. As the mobility and compactness of medical devices are becoming more demanding, wearable wireless sensors and antennas become an important candidate with their compact size, light weight, and ease of integration into clothes for Body Area Networks (BANs). This paper presents a state-of-the-art survey of the recent advances in wearable and epidermal antennas for medical applications, with emphasis on how flexible and light materials and textiles have a major effect on their design. While miniaturization and protecting the body against electromagnetic waves is of utter importance, the use of Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) structures is also emphasised. Some of the design challenges of wearable and epidermal antennas are highlighted as well.