Dual-Reconfigurable Polarization and Pattern Wearable Antenna

With the development of wearable wireless systems and wireless body area networks, the 3.5 GHz WiMAX band has become critical for body-centric communications, creating an urgent demand for high-performance wearable antennas with multifunctional integration, compact size and stable on-body performance. This paper proposes a novel polarization and pattern reconfigurable wearable antenna for the 3.5 GHz WiMAX band. The antenna consists of two square FR-4 dielectric substrates and three metal layers. It can operate in omnidirectional vertical polarization mode and ±45° directional linear polarization modes. It has a compact size of 0.36×0.36×0.035 λ₀³, with a measured peak gain of up to 7.22 dBi. The antenna maintains stable performance near the human body, and its low specific absorption rate values verify its safety in practical wearable applications.