Stability and Efficiency of Screen-Printed Wearable and Washable Antennas

Wearable antennas, integrated into garments, are prone to get dirty. Therefore, for the first time in literature, washable antennas are proposed by covering textile antennas by a breathable thermoplastic polyurethane coating, protecting the antennas against water absorption and corrosion. The washab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters Vol. 11; pp. 838 - 841
Main Authors Scarpello, M. L., Kazani, I., Hertleer, C., Rogier, H., Vande Ginste, Dries
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 2012
Subjects
Antenna measurements
Antenna radiation efficiency
Antennas
Coatings
Ink
microstrip antenna
Optical wavelength conversion
screen printing
Substrates
Textiles
washable antenna
wearable antenna
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Summary:Wearable antennas, integrated into garments, are prone to get dirty. Therefore, for the first time in literature, washable antennas are proposed by covering textile antennas by a breathable thermoplastic polyurethane coating, protecting the antennas against water absorption and corrosion. The washability of coated wearable antennas produced by screen printing conductive ink onto a textile substrate is compared to coated wearable antennas based on an electrotextile, analyzing performance in terms of their reflection coefficient and radiation efficiency before and after washing. The combination of screen printing and coating provides stable antenna performance with sufficiently high radiation efficiency after several washing cycles.
ISSN:1536-1225
1548-5757
DOI:10.1109/LAWP.2012.2207941