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In this paper, a compact and low-profile proximity-fed textile-based antenna with robust performance and improved bandwidth is proposed for body-area network (BAN) applications. The employed proximity-fed antenna differs from traditional wearable antennas in the sense that it not only exhibits improved bandwidth but also a reduced footprint. The proposed antenna also possesses an extreme robustness when subject to structural deformation and human body loading effects. In addition, the impact of the uncertainty in the dielectric constant (a characteristic associated with most textile material systems) is investigated for the first time. Experimental results show that the proposed proximity-fed antenna outperforms wearable antennas that employ more conventional feeding methodologies. The antenna was fabricated using two different flexible textile-based material systems (i.e., one printed and one embroidered). The advantages and disadvantages of each fabrication approach are discussed. The proposed antenna is characterized in free-space and on a human body, yielding robust performance in both cases. INDEX TERMS Antenna, textile antennas, embroidered, screen printing, wearable application.

An ultra-thin reconfigurable metasurface absorber consisting of a mushroom type artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is proposed. By capacitively loading the unit cells the reflection phase can be shifted, allowing the metasurface to steer the incoming wave to the desired direction, behaving as a phase gradient absorber. A formula based on antenna array theory was used to determine the required phase shift needed to steer the main beam. A reduction of 30dBm 2 compare to a PEC ground plane was achieved for the design that steers the main beam to φ= 0°and θ= 15°, from the specular direction. Also, it was further shown that by incorporating resistors into the loaded structure the main beam width can be increased.

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