Conformal In-Body Bolus Antenna for Precision Goat Farming

• Published in: 2023 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) pp. 1 - 4
• Main Authors: Goethals, Jasper, Nikolayev, Denys, Vermeeren, Gunter, Joseph, Wout, Philpott, Matthew, Clement, Eli, Deruyck, Margot
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: European Association for Antennas and Propagation 26.03.2023
• Subjects: Antenna theory; Bandwidth; Base stations; Conformal Antennas; Europe; Heating systems; In-body; Internet of Animal Heath; Precision Livestock Farming; Wireless communication; Wireless sensor networks
• DOI: 10.23919/EuCAP57121.2023.10133459

Precision livestock farming has seen an increased interest in the past years. To enable this technology, solid ground work needs to be done to roll-out the system. One major pillar of the ground work is the sensor to base station communication link. In this work, we present an in-body conformal bolus antenna to improve the wireless capability of the sensor nodes, as well in efficiency as in performance. Throughout the paper, we explain the design choices we made based on the state of the art theoretical background that is developed in the recent years concerning in-body antennas. The proposed antenna has a gain of -37.2 dBi. The antenna is well matched to the 50 Ω system and has a bandwidth of 20 MHz.