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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 4, APRIL 2013

60-GHz Textile Antenna Array for Body-Centric

Communications
Nacer Chahat, Student Member, IEEE, Maxim Zhadobov, Member, IEEE, Shoaib Anwar Muhammad,
Laurent Le Coq, and Ronan Sauleau, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractTo demonstrate that commercial textiles can be

used as antenna substrates at millimeter waves, a microstrip
patch antenna array printed on textile is proposed for off-body
communications in the 60-GHz band. The textile substrate is
characterized in V-band using the open stub technique. A new
fabrication process is introduced for the reliable and accurate
manufacturing of millimeter-wave microstrip antennas on textiles. The antenna reflection coefficient, radiation patterns and
efficiency are studied in free space, with and without bending,
and on a homogeneous skin-equivalent phantom. The numerical
and experimental results are in a good agreement. To the best of
our knowledge, this is the first textile millimeter-wave antenna
optimized for off-body communications presented in the literature
at millimeter waves.
Index TermsBody-worn antenna, millimeter waves, textile antenna, wearable antenna.

I. INTRODUCTION
EARABLE antennas for body-centric communication
systems have attracted an increasing attention over the
last few years [1]. In particular, textile antennas up to 11 GHz
have been the subject of extensive research since they guarantee
flexibility and comfortable embedding into clothing [2][13].
At microwaves, several linearly[2] and circularly[3], [4]
polarized fabric-based patch antennas have been proposed.
Single-band [5], dual-band [6][9], and ultra-wideband [13]
textile antennas have been reported with satisfactory performance in free space. The on-body performance of such antennas
has been assessed in several studies [4], [7], [9], [13]. As the
human body behaves as a lossy medium at microwaves [1], [9]
and millimeter waves [14], [15], the antennas placed close to the
body experience strong radiation pattern distortions, reduced
radiation efficiency, shift in resonance frequency, and changes
in their input impedance, e.g., [16][19]. Several solutions have
been proposed to reduce the interactions between the antenna
and the human body, like textile-integrated electromagnetic
bandgap (EBG) structures [7].
Besides, the unlicensed 5764 GHz band has been identified
as a highly promising solution for future body area networks

Manuscript received April 18, 2012; revised August 31, 2012; accepted
October 09, 2012. Date of publication December 11, 2012; date of current
version April 03, 2013. This work was supported by Agence Nationale de la
Recherche (ANR), France under Grants ANR-09-VERS-003 (METAVEST
project) and ANR-09-RPDOC-003-01 (Bio-CEM project) and by CNRS,
France.
The authors are with the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications
of Rennes (IETR), UMR CNRS 6164, University of Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes,
France (e-mail: nacer.chahat@univ-rennes1.fr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2012.2232633

(BAN) since it provides several advantages compared to microwave BAN [20]. First, because of the large available spectrum (7 GHz worldwide), very high data rates can be reached
(up to 5 Gb/s) [21]. Second, it provides a high level of security
and low interference with adjacent networks [22]. Finally, compared to on-body devices operating at microwaves, the size of
similar millimeter-wave systems is significantly reduced.
Only very few data have been reported in the literature so
far on 60-GHz BAN. First, it has been demonstrated that utilization of the 60-GHz band mitigates the co-channel interference, thus allowing a larger number of BAN users to be co-located within a certain area [22]. Propagation studies performed
using ray tracing techniques have shown that it is possible to
establish a BAN with reliable radio link and coverage for interconnecting various subsystems worn by soldiers [23]. Furthermore, two 60-GHz antennas for on-body communications
have been recently designed [24], [25], and the electromagnetic
and thermal interactions of millimeter waves with the human
body have been reviewed in [14]. Besides, a tissue-equivalent
phantom emulating the dielectric properties of the human body
in the 5565 GHz range has been recently proposed in [15] for
direct antenna measurement on the human body.
The interactions between a 60-GHz microstrip patch antenna
array designed for off-body communications on a conventional
semi-rigid substrate and the human body have been investigated
numerically and experimentally in [26]. It was demonstrated
that, for the considered scenario, the impact of the body on the
antenna characteristics is almost negligible, and even relatively
high antenna input powers (up to 550 mW) lead to exposure
levels that are below international exposure limits [26].
Besides, a textile Yagi-Uda antenna for on-body communications has been proposed in [27]. However, to the best of our
knowledge, textile antennas optimized for off-body communications at millimeter waves have never been reported so far.
On-textile fabrication process is very challenging at these frequencies, especially due to the roughness of the textile surface
and the size of textile fibers and electrotextiles with respect to
the geometrical dimensions of the metallic patterns.
Millimeter-wave textile antennas could be of great interest
for short range communications such as: (1) millimeter-wave
soldier-to-soldier communications [20], kiosk file downloading
[28], or (3) retrodirective antennas that could be integrated
into garments, clothes, or seats (planes, automotive, buses) for
simple wireless communication, positioning or sensor systems.
The main purpose of this work is to demonstrate that commercial textiles can be used as antenna substrates at millimeter
waves. To this end, we study here a 60-GHz textile-based antenna for off-body wireless communications with the ability to

0018-926X/$31.00 2012 IEEE

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Fig. 1. Photography of the electrotextile ShieldIt Super.

be bent and deformed into arbitrary shape. A simple, but representative patch antenna array is fabricated using an ad hoc
manufacturing process. Compared to the antenna presented in
[26], this results in a highly flexible antenna. The latter is characterized in free space and on a skin-equivalent phantom. As
the influence of bending at millimeter waves has never been investigated so far for textile antennas, the impact of antenna geometrical deformation on its performance is considered in detail.
This paper is organized as follows. The fabrication process is
described in Section II, and the textile substrate is characterized
at 60 GHz in Section III. The antenna array design and its main
characteristics in free space, on a skin-equivalent phantom,
and under bending and crumpling conditions are discussed in
Section IV.
II. TECHNOLOGICAL FABRICATION PROCESS
A. Choice of the Conductive Materials
Fabricating small metallic patterns on a flexible textile
is a technological challenge at millimeter waves because of
the fabric structure and peculiarities compared to traditional
substrates. Hence, an ad-hoc technological process has to be
developed since chemical etching techniques damage textiles.
At microwaves, electrotextiles [2], [3] (like ShieldIt Super)
have been often employed for the radiating elements and ground
plane to guaranty a minimum flexibility of the devices. However, at millimeter waves, enhanced fabrication accuracy is required since the metallic pattern dimensions are in the order 0.2
0.5 mm. ShieldIt Super is a rugged rip-stop polyester substrate, plated with Nickel and Copper, and coated on one side
with a non-conductive hot melt adhesive. The fabrication campaign we have launched has shown that the smallest achievable
line width is around 0.4 mm with an accuracy of about 0.15
mm. Such values originate from the plated fibers themselves
(Fig. 1). Therefore, the use of electrotextiles as metallic patterns for the radiating elements and feeding circuits is impossible in practice due to the fabrication inaccuracy and non-reproducibility. To circumvent this limitation, we propose to use
thin and flexible 0.07 mm-thick copper foils (available commercially) for all radiating elements and feeding lines, whereas nonpatterned metallic parts (like the ground plane of single-layer
microstrip antennas) can be made of ShieldIt Super to obtain a
better flexibility.
B. Fabrication Procedure
The proposed fabrication process is divided into three steps,
as shown in Fig. 2:
1) The ShieldIt Super is placed on the lower side of the textile
(ground plane), and the flexible copper foil is on the top
side.

Fig. 2. Main technological steps for the manufacturing of printed circuits and
antennas on textiles in V-band.

Fig. 3. 50-ohms microstrip line. (a) Demonstration of flexibility. (b) Zoom on

m).
the microstrip line (fabrication accuracy

2) This copper foil is micromachined using a laser machine

(ProtoLaser S, LPKF, OR, USA) operating at 1064 nm with
a pulse duration of 7.5 ns. The spot size equals 25 m.
Excessive laser power can damage the textile, resulting in
ragged or burnt edges. Therefore, careful optimization of
the laser parameters is necessary. A laser fluence of 24.4
mJ/cm with three cycles on the surface of the substrate has
been used for the copper foil ablation repetition (
kHz,
W) without affecting the textile substrate. These fabrication conditions lead to a geometrical
accuracy of about 10 m. It is worthwhile to underline that
the accuracy reported so far with two conductive fabrics,
namely knitted P130 and woven Nora fabric, is only about
0.5 mm and 0.15 mm, respectively [29].
3) Finally the unwanted parts of the copper foil are removed
manually from the surface of the textile.
Whereas in most fabrication processes reported so far, the
metallic part is cut separately and then adhered to the dielectric
layer [30], cutting out the desired pattern directly on the dielectric layer avoids additional discrepancies [31]. An example of
manufactured microstrip line is shown in Fig. 3(a). The device
is very flexible and the pattern quality (dimensions, sharpness
of the edges) is very satisfactory (Fig. 3(b)).
III. CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TEXTILE
The substrate thickness, permittivity and loss tangent
are very important features for any design. Here, we restrict our
choice to commonly-used textiles. A cotton woven fabric extracted from a shirt with a thickness of 0.2 mm is selected. Its
permittivity and loss tangent are determined in V-band as explained below. The devices under test have been manufactured
using the fabrication process described in Section II.
The relative permittivity is retrieved using the open-stub technique [32]. To this end, we have designed a 50- transmission

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TABLE I
COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT MMW SUBSTRATES AT 60 GHZ

Fig. 5. (a) Measured () and computed (- -) transmission coefficient

of the
mm,
mm. (b) Measured ()
stub loaded microstrip line (
and computed (- -) insertion loss of a 50 line. The numerical data assume
and
.

Fig. 4. (a) Stub-loaded microstrip line in the Anritsu universal test fixture 3680
V. (b) Two textile 50- transmission lines with different lengths.

line loaded by an open-ended parallel stub (Fig. 4(a)) whose

length is chosen to provide a resonance close to 60 GHz. The
resonant frequency is measured in transmission with a V-band
Anritsu universal test fixture 3680 V (Fig. 4(a)) connected to
an Agilent 8510XF vector network analyzer (VNA). The measurement setup has been calibrated using a full 2-port calibration
is repreprocedure. The measured transmission coefficient
sented in Fig. 5(a) (solid line) from 10 to 65 GHz. The device
is simulated using CST MWS, the relative permittivity of the
curve cointextile is tuned numerically until the theoretical
cides with the measured one.
The loss tangent is estimated through a differential measurement in transmission of two matched 50- microstrip lines
of different lengths (Fig. 4(b)). This enables determination
of the total insertion loss (Fig. 5(b)), and
is found by
fitting the measured and simulated data. Our experimental data
show that the insertion loss of transmission lines fabricated on
cotton woven fabric reaches about 1.6 dB/cm at 60 GHz, which
is larger than values obtained with conventional substrates
(Table I).

The best agreement between simulations and experiments is

obtained with
and
. These values are used
for the antenna design in Section IV.
Note that the proposed characterization technique could
result in some deviation due to the electromagnetic software.
However, such deviations are considered as acceptable because
commercial textiles are lossy, and a slight deviation in the
determination of their loss-tangent would have a minor impact.
Moreover, as the antenna array is rather wideband, its performance would almost not be altered due to slight deviations
in .
The insertion loss of a 50- microstrip line printed on a
0.2 mm-thick textile is about 1.6 dB/cm, which is quite important compared to conventional substrates such as RT Duroid
5880, fused quartz and alumina (Table I). However, these
substrates are not so flexible as textiles. For a fair comparison,
we should consider for instance a flexible antenna array proposed on PDMS [33] where the insertion loss are much more
important ( 3 dB/cm for a 0.2 mm-thick PDMS).
IV. ANTENNA ARRAY: NUMERICAL
RESULTS

AND

EXPERIMENTAL

A. Antenna Design
Whereas an on-body antenna needs to be compact and light
weight for better integration with the transceiver, it should be
also efficient and induce minimal power absorption inside the
human body. Because of the high atmospheric attenuation at 60
GHz and limitations on the radiated power, planar antennas with
a medium gain ( 1215 dBi) are often considered [34] as good

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Fig. 6. Layout of the microstrip antenna array printed on textile (dimensions

in mm).
Fig. 8. Measured and computed reflection coefficients of three prototypes.
in free space: prototype 1, prototype 2,
Measured
in free space. Simulated
on the skin-equivalent
prototype 3. Computed
mm).
phantom (antenna/phantom spacing:

Fig. 7. Measurement setup on the skin-equivalent phantom for

stands for the distance between the ground plane and the phantom.

mm.

solutions. In some applications, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) channels should be exploited, and beam steering antennas with high
gain are necessary to satisfy link budgets [35], [36]. In other scenarios with controlled environment, line-of-sight (LOS) channels can be efficiently used, and medium gain passive antennas
are very attractive. Kiosk file downloading [28], enabling shortrange (i.e., typically below 1 m) wireless data upload and downloads, is an appropriate example since users could use devices
directly integrated in clothes. Our work deals with this second
type of application scenarios where only short-range communications are considered [20], [28].
Hence, a microstrip-fed four-patch single-layer antenna array
printed on the 0.2 mm-thick textile has been designed (Fig. 6).
The array is fed by a 15.2 mm-long microstrip line to avoid too
strong reflections from the V-connector (Fig. 7). In practice, as
textiles are more lossy than classical substrates (Table I), it is
recommended to reduce the access line length as much as possible. Whereas the antenna could be fed using a central probe,
e.g., [37], the microstrip feed line is the easiest solution for integration on textile. Its impact on the antenna radiation performance is studied in the next Section.
B. Antenna Performance in Free Space
The antenna is fed using a V-connector (Fig. 7), and its reflection coefficient
is measured using a 110-GHz Agilent
8510XF VNA (Fig. 8). Three different antenna prototypes have
been fabricated and measured to assess the fabrication reproducibility. For all prototypes, the measured reflection coefficients are lower than
dB in the 5764 GHz range (Fig. 8),
and only a slight variability between prototypes is observed,

demonstrating thereby the relevance of the proposed fabrication

process. These discrepancies can mostly be related to manufacturing errors, variation of the substrate thickness, and placement
of the V connector (the pressure due to the test fixture jaw might
vary between measurements due to the softness of textiles).
The co-polarization components measured in E- and
H-planes at 60 GHz are in a good agreement with the computed
ones (Fig. 9). In E-plane, the non-symmetry of the co-polarization component is attributed to the spurious radiation of feeding
lines whose width is larger compared to standard substrates
at millimeter waves like RT Duroid 5880 [26], fused quartz
or Alumina (Table I). The main characteristics of these three
different substrates are compared in Table I with those of the
textile used here. It clearly appears that textile exhibits higher
loss and that feeding lines are larger.
The simulated cross-polarization level remains lower than
dB at broadside in E- and H-planes. As expected and as already noticed in many previous papers (e.g., [26]), the measured
values are much higher due to reflections and scattering on the
V-connector and metallic support (Fig. 7). Similar results (not
shown) have been obtained numerically when the V-connector
is included in the antenna model. Simulations have shown that
the V-connector affects the gain and directivity; therefore, for
comparison purpose, these results will be given for both configurations (i.e., with and without connector). The cross-polarization level could be further improved using a multilayer antenna design, e.g., [38]. However, the latter is not recommended
for on-body applications because the higher backward radiation would lead to larger greater specific absorption rate (SAR)
values. Moreover it was shown in [26] that even relatively high
antenna input powers (up to 550 mW) result in exposure levels
that are below international exposure limits. In practice, in future wearable millimeter-wave devices, the total radiated power
is expected to be restricted to several mW to reduce the power
consumption. For such power levels, the antenna array will automatically comply with the international exposure limits.
The effect of the central microstrip line exciting the antenna
array has been investigated numerically by comparing the radiation patterns of the proposed array to those of the same array
fed by a coaxial probe (Fig. 10). It is clear from this figure that

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Fig. 9. Normalized radiation patterns in co- and cross-polarization at 60 GHz. Simulation in free space. Measurement in free space. - - Measurement
on a skin-equivalent phantom. (a) -plane, (b) -plane.

Fig. 10. Comparison between simulated radiation patterns with coaxial feeding () and microstrip feeding ( ) at 60 GHz. (a)

the increase of the cross-polarization levels and side lobe levels

in E-plane is due to the main feed line.
The gain was measured relative to a 20-dBi standard gain
horn and the measured directivity is post-processed from the
3-D radiation pattern measurement. At 60 GHz, using CST
MWS, the computed gain with and without connector equals
8.6 dBi and 9.3 dBi, respectively. The measured gain equals
8.0 dBi. The computed directivity with and without connector
equals 12.1 dBi and 13.1 dBi, respectively. The measured
directivity equals 11.9 dBi and is in good agreement with computed result with a connector. The measured antenna efficiency
defined as the measured gain over the measured directivity is
41%. It is in good accordance with the simulated efficiency
(45% with connector and 43% without a connector).
Note that high losses are experienced in the feed line (about
3.3 dB). In order to increase the antenna gain and efficiency, the
feed line could be shortened or even suppressed (excitation of
the array at its center). In this last case (no feed line), a 12.6 dBi
gain and 75% efficiency could be achieved.
Table I compares the antenna efficiency of several similar
patch arrays (2 2 elements) printed on different substrates.
Two identical antenna arrays have been optimized and fabricated on fused quartz and alumina for comparison purpose. As
expected, due to larger dielectric loss, the efficiency on textile
is lower compared to other millimeter wave substrates. However, 9 dBi gains are sufficient to establish suitable off-body
short-range and high-data-rate communications. Based on the

-plane, (b)

-plane.

TABLE II
RADIO LINK PARAMETERS OF THE 60 GHZ HIGH-DATA RATE
COMMUNICATIONS

methodology explained in [33], maximum distances of 5.4 m

and 1.6 m are achievable under LOS and NLOS, respectively.
The parameters involved in this calculation are summarized in
Table II.
Finally, the antenna performance was tested after a number
of hand washing cycles. The antenna was measured before and
after washing when fully dried. It can be reported that the performance remained unchanged. However, to extend the life duration of the antenna, the best solution would be to waterproof
the whole antenna.
C. Antenna Performance on Human Body
The influence of the human body proximity upon the antenna
characteristics is investigated here using a numerical and ex-

CHAHAT et al.: 60-GHZ TEXTILE ANTENNA ARRAY

1821

Fig. 12. Antenna placed on a semi-cylindrical foam with

Bending in H-plane.

mm.

Fig. 11. Measured reflection coefficients of the antenna array (prototype

On phantom with
mm.
On phantom with
1).Free space.
mm.
TABLE III
COMPUTED AND MEASURED DIRECTIVITY, GAIN, AND EFFICIENCY ON THE
SKIN-EQUIVALENT PHANTOM AND IN FREE SPACE

perimental millimeter-wave semi-solid phantom emulating the

dielectric properties of the human skin [15]. For the numerical modeling, a parallelepipedic 2 100 100 mm phantom
is used. Its dielectric properties are dispersive as previously
described in [15]. In practice, the phantom is slightly larger
(10 100 100 mm ) to make it more rigid. Its composition
has been adjusted to mimic the properties of the human skin at
60 GHz [15]. Its permittivity and conductivity at 60 GHz equal
and
S/m, respectively. These values have
been measured using a technique based on heating kinetics [39].
They are in a good agreement with the skin reference data available in the literature (
and
S/m) [40].
The reflection coefficient (Fig. 8) of the antenna mounted on
the flat phantom has been computed for a separation
mm
between the antenna ground plane and the phantom (Fig. 7).
The numerical results demonstrate the very weak influence of
the phantom, as confirmed experimentally for two different antenna/body separations (
mm and
mm, Fig. 11).
As expected, human body effects on the antenna characteristics
are very weak because the antenna ground plane minimizes back
radiation towards the human body. It is worthwhile to note that
end-fire antennas optimized for on-body communications with
maximum radiation tangential to the body surface are more sensitive to the body proximity in terms of reflection coefficient,
radiation pattern, and efficiency [25], [27].
The measured radiation patterns are represented in Fig. 9 (in
dashed line). Comparison with the data obtained in free space in
E- and H-planes confirms the very weak influence of the phantom.
The antenna gain, directivity, and efficiency are summarized in
Table III when the antenna is placed on the skin-equivalent
phantom for
mm and
mm and in free space (i.e.,
). The gain on the skin-equivalent phantom remains
stable and is marginally sensitive to the antenna/body spacing.

Fig. 13. Measured reflection coefficients of the bent antenna mounted on a

mm.
mm.
semi-cylindrical foam.
mm.

D. Antenna Bending and Crumpling

Investigating the antenna performance under bending conditions is important for wearable applications as it is almost
impossible to keep it flat. To evaluate this effect, the antenna
array is placed on two semi-cylindrical Rohacell HF51 foams
with different radius (Fig. 12). The values chosen for are
arbitrary and represent severe test cases. The
is measured
(Fig. 13) when the antenna is bent in H-plane for three values of
, namely 10, 12.5, and 15 mm. The effects of severe flexure in
H-plane slightly disturb the reflection coefficient that remains
below
dB in the 5764 GHz band. Experiments were only
conducted for H-plane bending since it was demonstrated in [11]
that similar effects are found for bending in the E-plane.
The radiation patterns for bending in H-plane with
and 15 mm were measured to validate all computed results. It is
worthwhile to emphasize that for
mm, the maximum gain
is out of the measurable angular range of the anechoic chamber
used to conduct measurements (i.e., it occurs beyond
).
The simulated and measured radiation patterns for bending in
H-plane with
and 15 mm are represented in Fig. 14
and are in good agreement. Comparison between the measured
gains for
mm and
mm shows a decrease
of 0.1 dB. This is in good agreement with the computed results
(Table IV). The main radiation features for bending in H-plane
are summarized in Table IV. The 3 dB beam width increases
and the gain decreases when the bending radius decreases. The
antenna bending broadens the radiation pattern in the bending
plane, which results in a drop of gain. The main lobe direction
remains perpendicular to the textile section where the patches
are located.

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Fig. 15. Antenna array under crumpling. (a) Side view. (b) 3-D view.

Fig. 14. Normalized co-polarization component of the antenna bent in H-plane

mm. (b)
mm. Simulation. - - Meaat 60 GHz. (a)
surement.

Fig. 16. Simulated reflection coefficient of the antenna mounted under crumpling.

TABLE IV
COMPUTED RADIATION PERFORMANCE IN H-PLANE FOR VARIOUS BENDING
CONDITIONS

Finally, the array has been studied numerically under an arbitrary crumpling condition (Fig. 15) in terms of reflection coefficient and radiation patterns. The
remains well matched over
the 5764 GHz range under such deformations (Fig. 16). The radiation pattern is strongly affected but satisfactory performances
are maintained (Fig. 17). A gain of 7.0 dBi is demonstrated.
V. CONCLUSION
A wearable hybrid textile antenna array with a copper foil
has been presented for the first time at millimeter waves with
satisfactory performance in terms of reflection coefficient, gain
and efficiency demonstrating that commercial textiles can be
used as antenna substrates at millimeter waves. The textile substrate is characterized in V-band using the open stub technique.
Designed for short-range off-body communications, it operates

Fig. 17. Simulated radiation patterns under crumpling conditions at 60 GHz.

Co-polarization. - - Cross-polarization. (a) E-plane, (b) H-plane.

CHAHAT et al.: 60-GHZ TEXTILE ANTENNA ARRAY

over the whole 5764 GHz range. An accurate and reliable fabrication process has been proposed to cope with the peculiar
properties of textile-based substrates at millimeter-waves. The
achieved geometrical accuracy is in the order of 10 m. The dielectric properties of the textile used as a substrate have been
characterized using the open-stub technique.
Several antenna arrays have been fabricated and measured
in reflection and radiation in free space, on a skin-equivalent
phantom, and under bending and crumpling conditions. Since
fabrics are lossy, the feed line should be shortened in practical
application in order to improve the antenna efficiency and gain.
Comparison between measurements in free space and on a
skin-equivalent phantom has shown that the human body has
a very weak impact upon the antenna performance. Moreover,
the influence of bending has been investigated numerically and
experimentally under severe conditions. It is demonstrated that
bending has a small impact on the reflection coefficient and
antenna gain. Finally, under crumpling conditions, the antenna
characteristics remain satisfactory. The gain drops by 1 dB
and the reflection coefficient remains below
dB over the
5764 GHz range.
Whereas in particular scenarios, textile antennas will be
useful, non-textile antennas should be employed in other cases
since they have a higher efficiency and can be integrated easily
with electronics.
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Nacer Chahat (S09) graduated in electrical engineering and radio communications (valedictorian
and summa cum laude) from the Ecole Suprieur
dingnieurs de Rennes (ESIR), Rennes, France,
in 2009. He received the Ph.D. degree in signal
processing and telecommunications at the Institute
of Electronics and Telecommunications of Rennes
(IETR), University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France, in
2012.
In 2013, he joined as a Postdoctoral Fellow the
Submillimeter-Wave Advanced Technology Group,
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. His current research fields are electrically small antennas, millimeter-wave antennas, and terahertz antennas. He
accomplished a six-month masters training period as a special research student
in 2009 at the Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
Dr. Chahat was the recipient of the 2011 Best Paper Award from Bioelectromegnetics Society. He also received the 2011 CST University Publication
Award. In 2012, he was the recipient of the IEEE Antenna and Propagation
Society doctoral research award. He has been awarded 1st Prize for his Ph.D.
dissertation from Fondation Rennes 1, a prestigious organization in Brittany,
France.

Maxim Zhadobov (S05M07) received the M.S.

degree in radiophysics from Nizhni Novgorod State
University, Nizhni Novgorod, Russia, in 2003, and
the Ph.D. degree in bioelectromagnetics from the
Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of
Rennes (IETR), University of Rennes 1, Rennes,
France, in 2006.
He accomplished postdoctoral training at the
Center for Biomedical Physics, Temple University,
Philadelphia, PA, USA, in 2008 and then rejoined
IETR as an Associate Scientist CNRS (Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique). He has authored or coauthored more
than 70 scientific contributions. His main scientific interests are in the field
of biocompatibility of electromagnetic radiations, including interactions
of microwaves, millimeter waves and pulsed radiations at the cellular and
sub-cellular levels, health risks and environmental safety of emerging wireless
communication systems, biocompatibility of wireless non-invasive biomedical
techniques, therapeutic applications of non-ionizing radiations, bioelectromagnetic optimization of body-centric wireless systems, experimental and
numerical electromagnetic dosimetry.
Dr. Zhadobov was the recipient of the 2005 Best Poster Presentation Award
from the International School of Bioelectromagnetics, 2006 Best Scientific
Paper Award from the Bioelectromegnetics Society, and Brittanys Young
Scientist Award 2010.

Shoaib Anwar Muhammad received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering degree from National
University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan,
in 2005, the M.S. degree from Universit de Nice,
Sophia Antipolis, France in 2007, and the Ph.D.
degree from Universit de Rennes1, France at IETR
in 2010.
Currently, he is working as a Postdoctoral Fellow
at IETR, France. His research interests include
electromagnetic bandgap antennas, FabryPerot
cavity antennas, frequency selective surfaces, and
leaky wave antennas for space applications.

Laurent Le Coq received the electronic engineering

and radiocommunications degree and the French
DEA degree (M.Sc.) in electronics in 1995 and the
Ph.D. degree in 1999 from the National Institute of
Applied Science (INSA), Rennes, France.
In 1999, he joined IETR (Institute of Electronics
and Telecommunications of Rennes), University of
Rennes 1, as a Research Lab Engineer, where he is
responsible for measurement technical facilities up
to 110 GHz. His activities in antenna measurements
and development of related procedures involved him
in more than twenty research contracts of national or European interest. He is
author and coauthor of 21 journal papers and 30 papers in conference proceedings.

Ronan Sauleau (M04SM06) graduated in

electrical engineering and radio communications
from the Institut National des Sciences Appliques,
Rennes, France, in 1995. He received the Agrgation
degree from the Ecole Normale Suprieure de
Cachan, France, in 1996, and the Doctoral degree
in signal processing and telecommunications and
the Habilitation Diriger des Recherches degree
from the University of Rennes 1, France, in 1999
and 2005, respectively.
He was an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at the University of Rennes 1, between September 2000 and November
2005, and between December 2005 and October 2009, respectively. He has
been appointed as a full Professor in the same University since November
2009. His current research fields are numerical modeling (mainly FDTD),
millimeter-wave printed and reconfigurable (MEMS) antennas, substrate
integrated waveguide antennas, lens-based focusing devices, periodic and
non-periodic structures (electromagnetic bandgap materials, metamaterials,
reflectarrays, and transmitarrays) and biological effects of millimeter waves.
He has been involved in more than 30 research projects at the national and
European levels and has co-supervised 14 post-doctoral fellows, 18 Ph.D.
students, and 40 master students. He has received eight patents and is the
author or coauthor of more than 115 journal papers and 265 publications in
international conferences and workshops. He has shared the responsibility
of the research activities on antennas at IETR in 2010 and 2011. He is now
co-responsible for the research Department Antenna and Microwave Devices
at IETR and is deputy director of IETR.
Prof. Sauleau received the 2004 ISAP Conference Young Researcher
Scientist Fellowship (Japan) and the first Young Researcher Prize in Brittany,
France, in 2001 for his research work on gain-enhanced FabryPerot antennas.
In September 2007, he was elevated to Junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He was awarded the Bronze medal by CNRS in 2008. He
was the co-recipient of several international conference awards with some of
his students (International School of BioEM 2005, BEMS2006, MRRS2008,
E-MRS2011, BEMS2011, IMS2012, Antem2012). He is currently a guest
editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION Special
Issue on Antennas and Propagation at mm and sub mm waves.