Mobile phone fabric antennas integrated within clothing

Future clothing may have a variety of consumer electronics products built into the garments. Philips has demonstrated suits with integral radios and phones. Some of these designs have been produced in conjunction with Levis and are being sold under the ICD+ label. At present, mobile phones built into wearable electronics clothing use their own antennas. An earlier paper has described how antennas built out of metal and plastic can be incorporated within garments. This paper discusses how mobile phone antennas can be constructed out of textiles. Antennas for a variety of systems have been constructed. However this paper concentrates on GSM designs, as these have been the most studied. The properties of mobile phone antennas and their environment are considered, the geometry and location of wearable antennas are discussed and the suitability of textiles for antenna manufacture is considered