Circularly Polarized Helical Antenna for ISM-Band Ingestible Capsule Endoscope Systems

A multilayer miniaturized circularly polarized (CP) helical antenna is designed and experimentally demonstrated for industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) (2.4-2.48 GHz) ingestible capsule endoscope systems. The proposed antenna is composed of three open loops at various layers connected by via holes to form an axial-mode helical structure to generate traveling wave radiation. A one-layer muscle phantom model is used for initial design and optimization. The footprint of the proposed antenna is pi x (5.5)(2) x 3.81 mm(3). The simulated and measured impedance bandwidth is over 40% and 26% in the one-layer muscle phantom, respectively. The simulated axial ratio (AR) bandwidth is around 33.3%. The CP purity of the proposed antenna is calculated by comparing the communication link levels for two orthogonal polarizations. Additionally, electrical components are modeled inside the capsule to evaluate the effects on the antenna performance. CST voxel Gustav human body is utilized to study the design in a realistic environment. Finally, an omnidirectional CP exterior antenna is designed and the communication link is evaluated.