Design of antennas for a wearable sensor for homecare movement monitoring.

This paper is focused on the discussion of different trade-offs that frequently arise when selecting the appropriate antenna technology for a wireless sensor for home-care applications, and the implications that every decision represents for the overall design. In order to devise an optimum design strategy, the main methodological concerns are illustrated with the example of a wearable movement monitor. The selection of a suitable air interface is based on the comparison among different standards for low-cost, low-power wireless communication devices, and a patch antenna is designed from scratch. Results obtained by simulation show that this design meets all the requirements in terms of shape, size, antenna performance and cost-efficiency, validating the followed approach.