Stretchable and Flexible E-Fiber Wire Antennas Embedded in Polymer

A new process is presented to fabricate stretchable and flexible wire antennas using conductive fibers (E-fibers). Stretchability and flexibility are important for wire antennas that operate in environments subjecting them to shape deformation (e.g., automotive, wearable, implantable applications, etc.). The concept is to embroider the wire antenna using E-fibers and embed it into a stretchy polymer. This also preserves the integrity of the textile threads and protects them from corrosion. A key challenge is to remove the non-stretchable fabric on which the textile antenna was embroidered while still preserving its original shape. To validate our technology, we fabricate and test a stretchable and flexible wire antenna operating at 915 MHz. The E-fiber prototype is found to achieve excellent performance, comparable to that of its non-stretchable and non-flexible copper-wire counterpart. A future goal is to embed such antennas into hostile environments, such as a truck tire, for collecting automotive data.