Design of a Compact Meander-Based Antenna for Search and Rescue using PDMS

This work presents the design of a compact meander-based antenna for search and rescue application. The proposed antenna is designed on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate, which is robust, flexible, waterproof and suitable for use in harsh environments. Due to the need for operation at a relatively low frequency of 406 MHz, antennas for the search and rescue application require an extended electrical length, thus typically resulting in large sizes. This is alleviated by implementing the meander-based structure on the antenna to ensure size compactness. Besides that, to minimize the effects of the human body when worn, the antenna is integrated with a full ground plane on its reverse side to shield the body from electromagnetic coupling. Results indicated that the antenna operated with a center frequency of 406 MHz and bandwidth of 30.88 MHz (7.61 %). A unidirectional radiation is produced and the final size is 190 × 60 × 5 mm (0.257 × 0.081 × 0.0068) λo.