Effect of conductive material on wearable antenna performance: a case study of WLAN antennas

Abstract

This work focused on studying the effects of different materials on textile WLAN antenna performance. The results of this study can be used to improve the already introduced textile antennas. The results with different conductive element materials show that textile antennas can be fabricated using both conductive tape and fabrics without affecting the antenna performance. Discontinuations that are perpendicular to current flow need to be avoided and fabrics need to be densely knitted and use sufficiently conductive material. Eventually, textile antennas can replace the printed circuit board antennas in wearable applications.