A Review on Wearable Textile Antenna

Abstract

In today’s world, importance of wearable textile antennas has gained importance for healthcare and pervasive applications. Utilization of wearable textile materials for the development of microstrip antenna segment has been rapid due to the recent miniaturization of wireless devices. The use of wearable textile antennas is increasing rapidly in wireless applications. A wearable antenna is meant to be a part of the clothing used for communication purposes, which includes tracking and navigation, mobile computing and public safety. Specific requirements for wearable antennas are a planar structure and flexible construction materials. Several properties of the materials influence the characteristics of the antenna. For instance, the bandwidth and the efficiency of a planar microstrip antenna are mainly determined by the permittivity and the thickness of the substrate. The use of textiles in wearable antennas requires the characterization of their properties. This paper reviews a variety of wearable textile antennas in order to provide background information and application ideas for designing such antennas. The various materials used in the construction of wearable textile antennas, their fabrication methods, as well as the antenna types and their application fields are summarized.