Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

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Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm

Miniaturization of body worn antenna using nano magneto-dielectric

composite as substrate in C-band
Pragyan Jyoti Gogoi a, Mun Mun Rabha a, Satyajib Bhattacharyya a,b,
Nidhi S. Bhattacharyya a,n
a
b

Microwave Engineering Laboratory, Department of Physics, Tezpur University, Napaam, Tezpur, Assam 784028, India
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Tezpur University, Napaam, Tezpur, Assam 784028, India

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 1 December 2015
Received in revised form
1 March 2016
Accepted 6 April 2016
Available online 19 April 2016

It is preferable to have small size conformal microstrip patch antenna for body worn applications. Size
reduction is generally carried out by using magneto-dielectric material. Nanosized Ni1
xZnxFe2O4
(x 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75) of crystallite size  32 nm is synthesized as magnetic ller and dispersed in
exible linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) matrix. The ller concentrations are varied as 1, 3, 5 and
7 wt% in the composite. The developed composite is tested for suitability to be used as substrate for
microstrip antenna by determining its permittivity, permeability and losses in the C-band (48 GHz).
Other relevant parameters like, tensile strength, water absorbance and decomposition temperature of
the composite are also determined. The real part of complex permittivity of the composite varies from
2.23 to 2.38 and complex permeability from 1.25 to 1.46 for different ller concentrations. Verication of
the composites as potential substrates for body worn antenna is carried out by fabricating simple rectangular patch antenna at 6 GHz on it using transmission line model. Rectangular patch for x 0.50 for
7 wt% shows S11 of
30.44 dB and
10 dB bandwidth of 8.30% at 6.02 GHz. Directivity of 10.14 dBi and
negligible side lobe level for both E and H plane radiation pattern is observed. A size reduction of 27.09%
as compared to patch on LLDPE and tensile strength of 50 MPa is observed.
& 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Body worn antenna
Magneto-dielectric material
Miniaturization
C-band

1. Introduction
Body worn antennas have led to an increase in demand on development of miniaturized low prole antennas with conformability.
C-band (48 GHz) is chosen for wearable antenna applications in the
present work with the possibility to link the antenna to the satellite
communication system (uplink 5.926.42 GHz and down link 3.7
4.2 GHz). Further, C-band performs better under adverse weather
conditions collectively referred to as rain fade. A typical patch antenna designed on RTduroid substrate (r 2.2) at 6 GHz, determined
using transmission line model (TLM) technique [12], has a dimension
of 16.31 mm  19.76 mm. The overall antenna dimension inclusive of
the ground plane (which is at least six times the patch dimension)
becomes large enough, making it inconvenient to use for body worn
applications. Magneto-dielectric substrate has been reported to reduce
the dimension of the antenna [35]. The actual reduction obtained for
antenna is given in terms of relative permittivity and permeability,
n = r r [47], where r and r are real part of relative complex
permittivity and permeability of the substrate material, respectively.
n

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: nidhisbhatta@gmail.com (N.S. Bhattacharyya).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2016.04.016
0304-8853/& 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

At microwave frequencies, ferrites are generally used as magnetic

materials. Bulk ferrites have high permeability, permittivity and
magnetic losses at microwave frequencies, which narrows the bandwidth and lowers the efciency of antennas [89]. Moreover, the
brittle nature of ferrite places difculties in machining thus limiting
the thickness and exibility.
Nano sized ferrites are reported to have low saturation magnetizations and low eddy current losses [1013]. Nano ferrites in
exible polymer matrix can be considered as an alternate magneto-dielectric (MD) substrate material [1419]. Moreover the
permittivity and permeability of magneto-dielectric (MD) materials can be tailored to moderate values by varying the quantity of
magnetic inclusions in the polymer [1521].
Nickel ferrites with its Curie temperature of  500 C can
handle high microwave powers without affecting its magnetic
properties. Inclusion of Zn stoichiometrically in NiFe2O4 reduces
the magneto crystalline anisotropy, resulting in low coercivity, and
reducing the magnetic losses [6,12,2226]. Earlier studies conducted by authors showed that linear low density polyethylene
(LLDPE) is a good candidate as substrate for exible antennas in
C-band [27]. The nano sized nickel zinc ferriteLLDPE (NZFLLDPE)
composites are synthesized. Microstructural, physical, thermal,
and microwave characterization of the composite are carried out

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P.J. Gogoi et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

to check its suitability as substrate for antenna applications. A

simple rectangular microstrip patch antenna (MPA) is fabricated
on the proposed composite material and antenna performances
studied. The designed frequency of the antenna is chosen as the
center frequency of the C band i.e. 6 GHz.

2. Experimental
2.1. Synthesis of magneto-dielectric composite
2.1.1. Synthesis of nano sized nickel-zinc ferrite
Nano sized Zn substituted nickel ferrite particles are prepared
using co-precipitation technique [12,22]. Nickel (II) nitrate hexahydrate, Ni (NO3)2  6H2O ( Z98% pure), zinc nitrate hexahydrate,
Zn (NO3)2  6H2O (Z98% pure) and iron (III) nitrate nonahydrate,
Fe (NO3)2  9H2O ( Z98% pure) are taken as precursors in accordance to the stoichiometric composition of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4
(x 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75), and dissolved in RO (reverse osmosis)
deionised water. Keeping the temperature xed at 100C the solution is stirred for 23 h. Sodium hydroxide (1.5 M) is added drop
wise in the solution to control the size of the particles. The pH of
the reaction is kept at 12. A few drops of oleic acid (C17H33COOH)
are added as surfactants in order to reduce interparticle interactions and distribution [2829]. The system is cooled to room
temperature. The resultant precipitate is collected and centrifuged
at 3500 rpm and thereafter washed with distilled water and
ethanol several times to remove traces of sodium and nitrate
compounds. The precipitate is dried at 100 C. The dried powder is
crumbled and annealed at 900 C for 6 h. The annealed powder is

microstructurally (XRD and TEM) analyzed for ferrite formation,

shape and size.
2.1.2. Synthesis of nickel zinc ferriteLLDPE composite
Different weight percentage of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4 (x 0.25, 0.50
and 0.75) and LLDPE powder are mechanically blended to obtain
uniform mixture. The mixture is placed in a specially designed
three piece die mold. The system is initially heated up to 90
100 C. A pressure of about 2 ton is applied slowly to the sample
holder and the system is further isothermally heated at 150 C for
30 min. The sample is allowed to cool slowly at room temperature.
Weight% 1, 3, 5 and 7 of NZFLLDPE composites are prepared for
the study. Beyond 7 wt% the samples stiffen and loose exibility
and hence not included in the investigation.
2.2. Microstructural studies
2.2.1. X-ray diffraction of nickel zinc ferrite
The size determination is carried out at room temperature, by
X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns using Rigaku, Miniex 200 X-ray
diffractometer with Cu K line of wavelength 1.541841 , recorded at 2 values from 10 to 70. The XRD patterns of annealed
NZF particles are shown in Fig. 1(ac). The lattice parameter
a 8.32 and diffraction peaks (220), (311), (400), (440) and (511)
indexes to the ferrite spinel cubic structure (JCPDS card numbers
8-234). Extra peaks in the XRD pattern at 2 values of 31.71,
34.37, 35.31, 36.17 and 47.43 corresponds to (202), (241), (421),
(132) and (512) planes, respectively, which is indexed to Zn
(NO3)2  6H2O (JCPDS card no. 72-0058), showing presence of traces of precursors.

Fig. 1. XRD patterns of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4 for (a) x 0.25, (b) x 0.50 and (c) x 0.75.

P.J. Gogoi et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

The size of the ferrite particles is calculated using Debye

Scherrer's formula [30] using (311), (400), (511) and (440) ferrite
peaks. The average crystallite size is estimated to be about
31.84 nm in diameter.
2.2.2. Transmission electron microscopy of nickel zinc ferrite
Transmission electron micrographs (TEM) of the nickel zinc ferrite
particles are taken using JEOL, JEM-2100 transmission electron microscope (Akishima, Tokyo, Japan) operating at an accelerating voltage
of 200 kV. The micrographs of x0.50 sample, Fig. 2 shows an average
particle size of  36 nm. Most of the particles appear cubic in shape
with inter planar spacing of 0.21 nm.
2.2.3. Scanning electron microscopy of the nickel zinc ferriteLLDPE
composite
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies are carried out
using JEOL-JSM-6390. The micrographs are taken at 1011 A probe
current and 20 kV accelerating voltage at different resolutions. The
SEM micrographs of 7 wt% for x 0.50 nano sized NZFLLDPE
composite (Fig. 3) shows, the composite is homogeneous.
2.3. Physical and thermal characterization
2.3.1. Tensile properties
Tensile properties are measured by using universal testing
machine (Zwick, Roell 10 kN) in ASTM D 882 standard, at room
temperature with crosshead speed of 10 mm/min. The tensile
strength increases with the increase in the ller content while
elongation at break decreases. Inclusions of nano sized NZF ller
particles to the LLDPE matrix reduces the chains mobility, which
leads to a decrease in elongation at break [3133]. The tensile
properties and elongation at break for different ller concentrations of NZFLLDPE composites with varying weight percentage
are tabulated in Table 1.
2.3.2. Density and water absorption
Density of a material gives an idea about the compactness and
the weight of the material to be used as a exible substrate for
antenna. The density is determined for all the stoichiometric NZF
LLDPE composites with different weight fractions using Archimedes principle.

211

Water absorbance studies of the material is measured by dipping the samples into the water for 72 h. Thereafter the change in
weight is measured.
The density and water absorbance for different ller concentrations of NZFLLDPE composites are tabulated in Table 1.
Density of the composite slightly increases with the increase in the
ller concentration. Water absorbance of  0.01% is observed for
all the composites showing that the material can be effectively
used in humid environment without affecting the antenna
performance.
2.3.3. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA)
Thermo gravimetric analysis is carried out using a thermo
gravimetric analyzer, model STA-600. A 5 mg piece of the sample
is heated at rate of 30 C/min in the temperature range of 50
900 C in a continuous nitrogen atmosphere. TGA curves for the
three compositions are shown in Fig. 4(ac). The decomposition
temperature (onset of inection) of different weight percentage of
NZFLLDPE for all the three stoichiometric compositions (x 0.25,
0.50 and 0.75) are tabulated in Table 1. The TGA curves in Fig. 4(a
c) shows one step degradation. The major weight loss occurs in the
temperature range 442515 C. The degradation of the composite
occurs due to the breaking of the chemical bonds or the chains of
the polymer matrix.
2.4. Microwave characterization of nickel zinc ferriteLLDPE
composite
S11 and S21 parameter over the C-band are measured by the
transmission/reection method, using E8362C vector network
analyzer (VNA). A set of 3.5 mm coaxial air line with a length of
70 mm is used. Complex permittivity ( r =rjr) and complex
permeability ( r =rjr) for different concentrations of NZFLLDPE nano composites are determined using Agilent 85071E
material measurement software based on NicolsonRoss technique [34].
The real part of complex permittivity (r0 ) and tan e (dielectric) are
plotted in Fig. 5(ac) and Fig. 6(ac) respectively. It is observed that as
the percentage of inclusions increases the real part of permittivity r0 ,
and tan e also increases and 7 wt% composite shows higher value.
Not much variation in r0 and tan e values are observed over the

Fig. 2. TEM micrographs of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4 for x 0.50.

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P.J. Gogoi et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

Fig. 3. SEM micrographs of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite for 7 wt% of x 0.50.

Table 1
Characteristics parameters of LLDPE and NZFLLDPE composite.
Material

LLDPE
NZFLLDPE
composite

x 0.25 1 wt%
3 wt%
5 wt%
7 wt%
x 0.50 1 wt%
3 wt%
5 wt%
7 wt%
x 0.75 1 wt%
3 wt%
5 wt%
7 wt%

Tensile strength
(MPa)

Elongation at break
(%)

Density (gm/cm3) Percentage of water absorbance (%)

Decomposition temperature
(C)

18.8
27.75
36.27
48.03
49.50
28.26
35.32
48.17
50
28.77
31.45
48
49.50

800
47.80
43.53
40.55
39.35
48.50
43.59
41.50
40.55
48
43.41
40.31
39.87

0.92
0.95
0.95
0.96
0.96
0.96
0.96
0.96
0.97
0.96
0.96
0.97
0.97

438.85
442.10
443.13
444.56
445.85
443.35
445.43
445.85
446.84
442.85
444.41
445.43
445.83

0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01

Fig. 4. TGA curves of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite for (a) x 0.25, (b) x 0.50, and (c) x 0.75.

P.J. Gogoi et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

Fig. 5. Real part of complex permittivity of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite substrate for (a) x 0.25, (b) x 0.50, and (c) x 0.75.

Fig. 6. Tan e (dielectric) of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite substrate for (a) x 0.25, (b) x 0.50 and (c) x 0.75.

213

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P.J. Gogoi et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

Fig. 7. Real part of complex permeability of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite substrate for (a) x 0.25, (b) x 0.50, and (c) x 0.75.

Fig. 8. Tan m (magnetic) of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite substrate for (a) x 0.25, (b) x 0.50, and (c) x 0.75.

P.J. Gogoi et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

215

Table 2
Complex permittivity and complex permeability of NZFLLDPE composite at 6 GHz.
NZFLLDPE
composite

r0

r0 0

r0

r0 0

tan e
(dielectric)

tan m
(magnetic)

Miniaturization
factor (n)

x 0.25

1 wt%
3 wt%
5 wt%
7 wt%

2.26
2.28
2.30
2.33

0.041
0.023
0.052
0.003

1.27
1.30
1.39
1.42

0.015
0.029
0.055
0.076

0.009
0.005
0.021
0.055

0.087
0.077
0.075
0.110

1.69
1.72
1.78
1.81

x 0.50

1 wt%
3 wt%
5 wt%
7 wt%

2.24
2.27
2.33
2.38

0.041
0.023
0.053
0.015

1.25
1.37
1.38
1.45

0.031
0.028
0.061
0.067

0.024
0.032
0.055
0.056

0.037
0.071
0.083
0.101

1.67
1.76
1.79
1.85

x 0.75

1 wt%
3 wt%
5 wt%
7 wt%

2.23
2.25
2.26
2.33

0.043
0.029
0.062
0.033

1.21
1.32
1.38
1.46

0.021
0.023
0.065
0.069

0.022
0.038
0.037
0.057

0.053
0.072
0.068
0.110

1.64
1.72
1.76
1.84

Table 3
Design consideration and performance parameters of antennas on NZFLLDPE composite substrate.
Length
(L) in
(mm)

Height of
the
substrate
(mm)

Permittivity
(r0 )

Permeability
(r0 )

Resonant
frequency
(GHz)

S11 (dB)

x 0.25 17.03

14.31

2.33

1.42

6.02

28.17

x 0.50 16.70

14.07

2.38

1.45

6.02

x 0.75 16.85

14.15

2.33

1.46

5.98

16.31

2.20

5.96

Microstrip patch
antenna on

NZFLLDPE
substrate

LLDPE substrate

Width
(W) in
(mm)

19.76

10 dB
Bandwidth
(GHz) and (%)

0.31
5.14

30.44 0.50
8.30

30.21 0.41
6.85
0.17

32.16 2.85

Directivity
(dBi)

8.82
10.14
9.05

8.98

Miniaturization factor (n) and % of

miniaturization

n 1.81
24.38%
n 1.85
27.09%
n 1.84
26.01%
n 1.48

Fig. 9. Fabricated antenna on 7 wt% of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite substrate

for x 0.50.

C-band.
The complex effective permittivity of the composite depends
on the individual permittivity of its constituents and their spatial
arrangement in the mixture. The composite consists of high permittivity ferrite inclusions embedded in low permittivity matrix.
On incidence of electromagnetic wave on the composite, the
electric eld concentrates on the inclusions, leading to non-uniform electric eld distribution and polarization of the ferrite inclusions, thus affecting the permittivity of the composite. Increase
of high permittivity ller percentage, increases the non uniformity of electric eld and hence the permittivity of the composite
[5,3537].
The ionic radius difference between Zn2 and Ni2 can lead to
the additional dipoles. The ion polarization () in oxides of
Ni2 (Ni2 1.23) is smaller than that of Zn2 (Zn2 2.04). The
permittivity is proportional to the ion polarization [38]. With equal

Fig. 10. S11 of MPA designed on 7 wt% of Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite substrate
for x 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75.

substitution of nickel and zinc, more number of dipoles will be

formed as compared to unequal amount of substitution. Thus,
substitution of x 0.50 shows slightly higher r.
Fig. 7(ac) shows variation of r with the weight percentage of
the inclusions over the frequency range 48 GHz. The permeability
properties shows the same trend as the dielectric properties, increasing with the content of nickel zinc ferrite (NZF) in the LLDPE
matrix and 7 wt% showing higher values.
Permeability spectra of ferrites can be described by two types
of magnetizing processes: (i) spin rotation and (ii) domain wall

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P.J. Gogoi et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

motion

=1 + spin +dw

(1)

where spin and dw denotes the magnetic susceptibility due to spin

and domain wall motion, respectively. Due to large damping factor
of spin rotation in the ferrite, the spin component spin has relaxation type dispersion. The spin component and domain component can be shown as

spin =

Kspin

1 + i res

(2)

spin

dw =

res
Kdw dw
res 2

dw 2+i

(3)

res
res and are magnetic eld frequency,
where , Kspin , spin
, Kdw , dw
static spin susceptibility, spin resonance frequency, static susceptibility
of domain wall motion, domain wall resonance frequency and
damping factor of the domain wall motion respectively [3941].
At microwave frequencies spin dominates and Eq. (1) reduces
to

=1 + spin

(4)

On analysis Eq. (2), with increase in , the spin decreases and

hence also decreases. This trend is in agreement with the obtained experimental results.
The tan m as seen from Fig. 8(ac) almost remains same thr-

oughout the measured frequency range however, increases with

increase in ller content.
The complex permittivity and complex permeability at 6 GHz
(the design frequency of antenna) for all the NZFLLDPE composite
concentrations are listed in Table 2.
2.5. Suitability of the NZFLLDPE composite as substrate for body
worn antenna applications
Complex permittivity and complex permeability are primary deciding parameter in selection of substrate for any patch antenna applications. For good performance, these parameters should have low
values. NZFLLDPE composite have low dielectric constant and losses
(both dielectric and magnetic), as observed from Table 2. The composite also have good tensile strength, negligible water absorbance
and shows 0.01% of weight loss up to  442 C (refer Table 1). The
density increases by only 0.05% for 7 wt% of NZFLLDPE composite as
compared to LLDPE. LLDPE is low priced and easily available and the
processing method of developing the composite is simple. For body
worn applications, it would be preferable to have antennas with reduced dimensions and conformability, giving necessary convenience
to the wearer. NZFLLDPE composite offers sufcient exibility
(average tensile strength  40 MPa) and the permeability gives the
desired miniaturization, n 1.83 ( n = r r ), thus showing its suitability as substrate for body worn antennas. As seen from Table 2,
7 wt% of the composite for all the three different concentration viz.
x0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 of Zn, shows the maximum miniaturization
factor and hence are used as substrate for designing MPA and further
study.

Fig. 11. E and H eld radiation patterns with inset directivities for (a) antenna on LLDPE substrate at 5.96 GHz and antenna on Ni1
xZnxFe2O4LLDPE composite substrate for
(b) x 0.25 at 6.02 GHz, (c) x 0.50 at 6.02 GHz and (d) x 0.75 at 5.98 GHz.

P.J. Gogoi et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 414 (2016) 209218

2.6. Design and fabrication of rectangular patch antenna on NZF

LLDPE composite substrate
Simple rectangular patch antenna is designed using transmission line model (TLM) technique [12] at 6 GHz. The effective
permeability for designing the patches are calculated using Pucel
and Masse formulation [42]. The substrate height is kept xed at
1 mm. Dimensions of the MPA on 7 wt% for three different concentrations (x 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75) of NZFLLDPE composite
substrates are given in Table 3. The patch is fed using microstrip
inset feeding technique. Fig. 9 shows the fabricated antenna.

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

2.6.1. Performance study of the antenna on NZFLLDPE composite

substrate
Performance studies of antennas fabricated on NZFLLDPE
substrate are carried out in C-band. For comparison, an antenna at
same resonant frequency is designed on LLDPE substrate keeping
the height of the substrate same. S11 parameters are measured
using Agilent E8362C vector network analyzer (VNA) and shown
in Fig. 10. The radiation patterns for E and H plane are given in
Fig. 11(ad). The performance parameters are tabulated in Table 3.
The magneto-dielectric composite substrate shows improved value of S11,
10 dB bandwidth and directivity as compared to the
antenna on LLDPE substrate.

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

3. Conclusion
Use of nano sized nickel zinc ferrite in LLDPE gives the composite
necessary permeability without introducing much loss and retaining
the tensile strength of the matrix. The magneto-dielectric substrate
thus developed helps in reducing the size of the antenna and gives
sufcient exibility making it a good candidate as substrate for body
worn antenna applications. The patch antennas drawn on the 7 wt%
composite shows S11 notch of 
30 dB. Filler with zinc concentration of 0.50 shows
10 dB bandwidth of 8.30% and directivity
10.14 dBi at 6.02 GHz which is higher than antenna on only LLDPE
substrate. A miniaturization of 27.09% is observed. The antenna on the
NZFLLDPE composite substrate thus can be mounted in small non
planar spaces and it's operational in C-band, giving a possibility to link
to the satellite communication system.

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