Monolithic Antenna Array for Epidermal 5G Backscattering Communications

5G network is expected to sensibly boost the diffusion of personal area networks for health and wellness monitoring purposes, especially with regard to battery-less devices and backscattering based communications. To overcome the power path-loss, however, high efficiency radiating elements are mandatory, especially for the highest frequencies. Here, the feasibility of adopting monolithic grid antenna arrays directly adhering onto the human skin is investigated. Numerical parametric analysis are performed to evaluate the backscattering link budget of the proposed epidermal devices and to derive their upper-bound performances. Early results demonstrate the reasonability of the approach and the possibility to reach communication distances ranging from 20 cm to 1 m in case of sub-grid structures are adopted.