Wearable textile substrate patch antennas

Abstract

The development and utilization of wearable antennas has grown rapidly in recent years for application in the miniaturization of wireless communication devices. The main advantage of wearable antennas is that they are designed as elements of clothing able to transmit or receive wireless signals. The wearable antenna system plays an important role in many fields, including tracking and navigation. This paper reviews the current state of the art in wearable antenna development, focusing on design and analysis issues. Extensive investigation is carried out into the development of wearable antennas from the past to the present. Following the review a case study is undertaken, examining the performance of a rectangular microstrip antenna fabricated on various textile substrates. In addition, to significantly reduce the size of the antenna, the short circuit pins method is proposed as an integral design component of the antenna. Using the method proposed, the antenna size has been reduced by approximately 68% (from 47.4 mm × 54.06 mm to 20 mm × 41 mm).