Planar textile antennas performance under wearable and body centric measurements

Abstract

This study proposes three types of planar textile antennas namely planar straight dipole, diamond dipoles and CPW monopole for body centric communication. All the proposed antennas are made from entirely textile where fleece and Shieldit fabrics are used as substrates and conducting parts respec-tively. The proposed antennas have been thoroughly measured under wearable and body centric measurements. Investigations including bending, wetness and SAR were performed to test the performance of the proposed antennas for prac-tical realization in body centric applications. Bending was found not to give any obvious performance deviation. However, wetness has caused major perfor-mance disruption since the antennas are made from non-waterproof material. Nevertheless, the original performance is recovered once the antennas are dried out. SAR investigation was also performed and both antennas give significant SAR values when positioned near to human body.