Textile Antennas for Wearable Radio Frequency Applications

Abstract

We present a novel class of embroidered textile radio frequency (RF) circuit and antennas based on electrically conductive metal-polymer fibers (E-fibers) to realize wearable RF electronics woven on daily garments. The E-fibers are composed of high strength and flexible polymer core covered with a metallic coating. These E-fibers exhibit very low electrical loss and excellent mechanical conformalty and flexibility. Computerized embroidery machinery and double layer stitching were employed to achieve high conductivity and precise fabrication of the e-fiber textiles onto regular clothing. Using this process, prototypes of textile antenna prototypes were fabricated and tested. Their RF characteristics were measured in off-body (freestanding) and on-body configurations. The obtained measurement data demonstrated that the textile antennas exhibited excellent RF performances comparable to conventional copper antennas. This is in addition to their excellent mechanical flexibility. Importantly, the textile antennas can be inconspicuously woven onto clothing, without affecting comfort, fashionality, and washability. Those novel textile antennas provided solutions to future RF functionalized and fashionable garments for wearable high data rate wireless communications and for wireless health monitoring.