A Review On Wearable Textile Antenna: December 2015

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A Review on Wearable Textile Antenna

Article · December 2015

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Journal of Telecommunication, Switching Systems and Networks
ISSN: 2454-6372(online)
Volume 2, Issue 3
www.stmjournals.com

A Review on Wearable Textile Antenna


Ashok Yadav1*, Vinod Kumar Singh2, Manu Chaudhary1, Himanshu Mohan1
1
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Krishna Engineering College,
Ghaziabad UP, India
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, S.R. Group of Institutions, Jhansi, UP, India

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.

Keyword: Wearable textile antenna, textile material, fabrication methods

*Author for Correspondence E-mail: ashok.biet@gmail.com, singhvinod34@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION user’s activities and is aware of the user’s


The evolution of antenna technology for man- situation. The wearable antenna integrates
machine interface has taken quantum leaps in cloth into the communication system [2, 3].
utilizing textile materials as antenna The rapid development of wireless
substrates. In that sense, textile materials form communication technology, many researchers
interesting substrates hence fabric antennas are now paying increasing attention to the
can be easily integrated into clothes. study of wireless body area networks
(WBANs). WBAN links various electronic
Textile materials generally have a very low devices in and on the human body. The
dielectric constant, which reduces the surface application of WBANs has been expanding in
wave losses and improves the impedance medical services, national defense, and
bandwidth of the antenna. In comparison with wearable computing, and so on. Several
high dielectric substrates, textile antennas are frequency bands have been assigned for
physically larger. Textile material is generally WBAN systems, such as; the Medical Implant
classified into two categories: Man Made Communication System (MICS: 400 MHz)
fibers and Natural fibers. Synthetic fiber is band, the Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM:
subcategory of manmade fibers [1]. 2.4 and 5.8 GHz) band, and the Ultra-
wideband (UWB: 3–10 GHz). The wide
Wearable antennas for in and on-Body Area ranging applications of WBAN’s including,
Networks (BAN) are design by textile military, ubiquitous health care, sport,
materials, this is universally used and easily entertainment and many others have been
available. The design of the antenna depends categorized into two main areas by the IEEE
on characterization of their electric and 802.15.6 standard. These two areas are
electromagnetic properties. A wearable medical and nonmedical (Consumer
computer is always on, does not restrict the Electronics) shown in Table 1 [4].

JoTSSN (2015) 37-41 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved Page 37
A Review on Wearable Textile Antenna Yadav et al.

Table 1: Textile Antenna Application.


Military and Defense
Professional and Amateur
Sport Training
Wearable BAN
Sleep staging
Asthma
Wearable Health Monitoring
Medical
Diabetes Control
Implant WBAN Cardiovascular Detection
Cancer Detection
Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)
Remote control of Medical Devices Patient Monitoring
Tele-medicine Systems
Real Time Streaming
Entertainment Applications
Emergency (nonmedical)
Nonmedical
Emotion Detection
Secure Authentication
Personal information sharing

The structure of the system and the connection practical use of textile antennas is most
of the antenna are presented in Figure 1. It convenient when they are integrated into
consists of a remote monitor unit that is clothing. The necessary requirements of
capable of receiving data via radio from smart wearable antenna designing are planar
clothes equipped with sensors, a radio structure, flexible conductive materials in the
transmitter and antenna. To make body-centric patch and ground plane, and flexible dielectric
communications is wearable, fabric-based materials. This paper is focused on the
antennas are recent field of research. All properties of textile materials, which is
wearable antennas require light weight, low dielectric fabrics used in antennas and some
cost, almost maintenance-free and no fabrication methods for the textile antenna.
installation for modern application. The

Fig. 1: Antenna in Wireless Smart Cloth.

JoTSSN (2015) 37-41 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved Page 38
Journal of Telecommunication, Switching Systems and Networks
Volume 2, Issue 3
ISSN: 2454-6372(online)

PROPERTIES OF TEXTILE dielectric properties of materials. The real part


MATERIALS USED IN WEARABLE of the relative permittivity, εr1 , is called the
ANTENNAS dielectric constant. The ratio of the imaginary
Textile materials that are used as an antenna's part to real part is called the loss tangent.
substrates are of two types: natural and man- 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝛿 = −jεr2 /εr1 (2)
made fibers. Man-made fibers subcategorized
as synthetic fibers being polymers from their Thus, the behavior of the material tested under
molecular structure. Many wearable antennas a specific electric field orientation and
aspects contribute in the overall design frequency describes by the relative
features of the antennas. Some characteristics permittivity. Textiles materials have a very
of the textile materials are given as: low dielectric constant because they are very
porous materials and the presence of air makes
Absorption of Moisture the relative permittivity to one. Table 2 shows
The moisture changes the antenna the dielectric properties of normal textile
performance parameters dramatically when a fabrics. The surface wave losses can be
fabric antenna absorbs water because water reduced by low dielectric constant. Therefore,
has much high dielectric constant than the increases spatial waves by the lowering the
fabric. The fibers are constantly exchanging dielectric constant and hence increases the
water molecules with the air and changes impedance bandwidth of the antenna, allowing
dynamic equilibrium with the temperature and the development of antennas with acceptable
humidity of the air surroundings. Regain, efficiency and high gain.
which is defined, by the ratio of the mass of
absorbed water in specimen to the mass of dry Table 2: Dielectric Property of Normal
specimen, expressed as a percentage represents Fabrics.
the sensitivity of the fabric to moisture. Sl. No. Nonconductive Fabric 𝛆𝐫𝟏 𝒕𝒂𝒏𝜹
Resonant frequency and bandwidth is reduced 1 Felt 1.22 0.016
by the higher dielectric constant of water. 2 Cordura 1.90 0.0098
3 Cotton 1.60 0.0400
Since fabric antennas are used near the skin, 4 Polyester 1.90 0.0045
the aspect of wetness of fabric due to human
5 Quartzel Fabric 1.95 0.0004
sweat becomes more important. In addition,
wearable systems can be mounted on top of 6 Cordura/Lycra 1.50 0.0093
jackets or suits where the aspects of wetness 7 Silk 1.75 0.012
raised up due to rain or washing the textile 8 Tween 1.69 0.0084
materials. Beyond these effects, when textile 9 Panama 2.12 0.05
fibers absorb water they swell transversely and 10 Jeans 1.70 0.025
axially, causing tightening of the fabrics [5]. 11 Moleskin 1.45 0.05

The Dielectric Constant of the Fabrics


One of the most important parameters Thickness of the Dielectric Fabrics
affecting the ability to transmit fast changing The bandwidth and efficiency performance of
signals across the textile transmission line is a planar micro strip antenna is mainly
the complex dielectric permittivity of the determined by the substrate dielectric constant
material or substrate. The return loss in the and its thickness. To maximize the bandwidth
transmission line can be affected by this of the planar antenna the substrate thickness
phenomenon. The complex permittivity is for a fixed relative permittivity is chosen.
defined as; However, this value may not optimize the
εr : ε = ε0 εr = ε0 (εr1 − jεr2 ) (1) antenna efficiency so the thickness of the
dielectric material is a compromise between
Here ε0 is the permittivity of vacuum which is
efficiency and bandwidth of the antenna. The
8.854×10-12 F/m. In general, the frequency,
influence of the thickness on the bandwidth
temperature, and surface roughness and also
(BW) of the antenna may be explained by Eq.
on the moisture content, purity and
(3), where Q is the antenna quality factor.
homogeneity of the material affects the

JoTSSN (2015) 37-41 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved Page 39
A Review on Wearable Textile Antenna Yadav et al.

BW~1/Q (3) methods. Mainly following methods are used


The Q factor is influenced by the space wave to fabricate the textile antenna.
(Qrad) losses, the conduction Ohmic (Qc) 1) Copper Foil: The simplest of the methods
losses, the surface waves (Qsw) and dielectric and it involves the application of
(Qd) losses as shown in Eq. (4). commonly available copper tapes that can
1/Qt=1/Qrad+1/Qc+1/Qd+1/Qsw (4) be directly applied to the substrate of
For thin substrates (h<< λ0) the quality factor interest (in this case textile fabrics) with
associated with radiation (Qrad) is usually the no extra fabrication processes.
dominant factor and is inversely proportional 2) Copper Mesh: In this technique, copper
to the height of the substrate. Therefore, thread is woven into the textile substrate
increasing the height of the substrate lowers which offers more stable and rigid
the Q factor (Qt). As the Q-factor decreases structure comparing to the copper taper
with an increased aperture between the patch method.
and the ground planes of the antenna, a thicker 3) Conductive spray: A spray with a mixture
substrate allows a larger antenna bandwidth. of copper with gases under pressure can be
The thickness of the fabrics is a feature that used to obtain a conductive layer in the
may guide the search for suitable textile surfaces of the textile exposed to the
dielectrics [6]. spray. This method provides flexibility
and reliability from general textile antenna
Human Body Movements design.
Movement of a human body consists of a 4) Copper with rubber: Mixture of
superposition of bends in arbitrary directions. conductive nano-particles and rubber to
Due to this excellent flexibility and elasticity produce flexible and rigid conductor layers
textile materials adapt these surfaces. Local to be applied in textile antenna and general
scattering plays a part in communications textile electronic structures [7–9].
when human body movement is considered.
Hence, human body is subject to many small CONCLUSION
movements even when standing, sitting, In this paper, it is concluded that wearable
during normal activities, and even during antennas are mainly planar specifically
playing of sports. Thus, significant variations microstrip patch antennas. From the review,
in the channel could occur due to changes in we find that the dielectric constant, moisture,
the geometry of the body. In such conditions, temperature, loss tangents, thickness,
characterization of radio wave propagation conductivity and deformation influence the
needs to account both for the variable performance and the characteristics of the
positioning of the antennas on the body, and textile wearable antenna. In general, textiles
variations in the channel due to body material performs a very low dielectric
movements. Moreover, the variation of the constant, between 1 and 2 and the presence of
geometric dimensions of the textile air approaches the relative permittivity to one.
components of the antenna due to their The low dielectric constant reduces the surface
elongation and/or compression diminishes the wave losses that are tied to guided wave
geometric precision of the shape of the propagation within the substrates. The
antenna affecting its behavior, which may thickness of the dielectric material is also
change its resonance frequency [3]. important parameter in the design of antennas.
For a fixed relative Permittivity, the substrate
FABRICATION METHODS OF thickness may be chosen to maximize the
TEXTILE ANTENNA bandwidth of the planar antenna. The choice of
The fabrication techniques, which will be the thickness of the dielectric material is a
partially determined by the materials used in compromise between efficiency and
designing a textile antenna, is also another bandwidth of the antenna. Moreover, the
important consideration, in defining and thickness of the substrate also influences the
determining the overall cost of the design. geometric sizing of the antenna. In this paper
This is because different material used in the we also reviewed different methods to
antenna design requires different fabrication fabricate the wearable textile antenna.

JoTSSN (2015) 37-41 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved Page 40
Journal of Telecommunication, Switching Systems and Networks
Volume 2, Issue 3
ISSN: 2454-6372(online)

Wearable textile antennas are becoming more Properties, Antennas and Propagation,
and more enhancing and challenging and EuCAP, Edinburgh, 2007, 1–4p.
carrying a great future in the development of 6. Rita Salvado, Caroline Loss, Ricardo
rapidly growing wireless communication Gonçalves, et al. Textile Materials for the
technology and minimization of the Design of Wearable Antennas: A Survey,
communication system. Sensors. 2012; 12(11): 15841–15857p,
ISSN 1424-8220.
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JoTSSN (2015) 37-41 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved Page 41

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