Energy-efficient textile antenna systems for body-centric communication and sensing

Within the context of smart textiles interactive fabrics systems, the development of wearable antennas based on textile fabrics has been an exciting research area for more than a decade now. The specific textile antenna design challenges involve the characterization of the conductive and non-conductive antenna fabrics; the selection of low-loss textiles; the application of an antenna topology that realizes high body-antenna isolation, as such ensuring high radiation efficiency in proximity of the human body; and the implementation of an antenna with stable radiation characteristics, coping with the adverse effects the textile antenna is subjected to when integrated into a garment, such as bending, crumpling, stretching and varying humidity conditions. By now, many excellent textile antennas have been proposed in literature. However, not many of them are found in commercial wearable systems. The three main impediments for market penetration are: reliability issues of the connections between the textile and the electronic components; the lack of dedicated textile antenna mass production techniques; and the availability of compact rigid fully integrated wireless nodes, for which currently no textile counterparts exist. In this presentation, we will present some novel design paradigms that may overcome these problems, thereby paving the way to commercial textile antenna systems.