IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters · 2014 · 60 citations · 9 references
EngineeringElectrical EngineeringMaterials ScienceAntennasElectromagneticsMicrowave EngineeringMagnetic ComponentsMicrowave AntennasPlanar AntennasTechnical TextilesTextile IntegrationTextile MaterialsGalvanic CouplingRadio-frequency IdentificationRadio-frequency Identification TagsRfid AntennasTransformer TheoryWearable AntennasWearable DevicesWearable Textiles
The paper proposes wearable electronic modules integrated into textiles, using magnetically coupled antennas to active circuitry. The coupling employs a heterogeneous transformer with primary and secondary windings in the antenna and circuitry substrate, eliminating galvanic contacts and enabling simple placement and gluing. The design avoids bonding and soldering, mitigating textile implementation constraints, and a textile‑based patch antenna operating at 2.4–2.4835 GHz was fabricated and measured, demonstrating feasibility for garment RFID and wearable electronics.
This letter proposes wearable electronic modules on textile, suitable for garment integration, based on antennas magnetically coupled to the active circuitry. The coupling mechanism is based on a heterogeneous transformer with the primary and secondary windings implemented in the antenna and in the circuitry substrate (hybrid or monolithic), respectively. The proposed coupling topology avoids galvanic contacts between the antenna and the active circuitry, allowing for interconnecting the antenna by a mere placing and gluing process. Bonding and soldering processes, often critical for textile materials, are thus avoided. The proposed innovation, mitigating the industrial realization constraints posed by textile implementation of active antennas and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, should unsurprisingly enable and foster industrial developments of garment RFID, wearable electronics and body-centric communications systems. A patch antenna with transformer based on textile materials and operating in the frequency band 2.4-2.4835 GHz is designed, realized, and measured.
9