Design and experimental evaluation of a novel on‐body textile antenna for unicast applications

• Published in: Microwave and optical technology letters Vol. 62; no. 2; pp. 789 - 799
• Main Authors: Anbalagan, Abirami, Sundarsingh, Esther Florence, Ramalingam, Vimal Samsingh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.02.2020; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Antennas; Cloth; Cotton; Data transmission; embroidered antenna; ISM band; multilayered textile antenna; Sewing; specific absorption rate (SAR); system integration; Textiles; wearable; Wearable technology
• ISSN: 0895-2477; 1098-2760
• DOI: 10.1002/mop.32075

A symmetric multilayered embroidered textile antenna is proposed in this article. The proposed antenna is designed at industrial, scientific, and medical band frequency of 2.45 GHz, to be used as a wearable made of Zari and cotton cloth. An end‐to‐end slot has been introduced to improve return loss and efficiency. The four‐layered antenna is fabricated using conventional embroidery and the layers are sewn together to form the entire structure. Measurements on the fabricated antenna are performed to validate the characteristics of the structure in bent, crumpled, and wet conditions. Results with regard to return loss, gain, bandwidth, and radiation pattern were presented to prove the usefulness of the structure. Furthermore, the antenna was integrated with Arduino Uno development board and tested for data transmission as a wearable system.