1.575 GHz dual-polarization textile antenna (DPTA) for GPS application

This paper presents a novel dual-polarization textile antenna (DPTA) for Global Positioning System (GPS) applications. In this design, four sector radiating elements are centrally-fed by a coaxial probe. A novel antenna structure is successfully achieved by integrating electronic components into a wearable textile antenna. Silver loaded epoxy adhesive is used in embedding four PIN diode switches on ShieldIt super textile of the proposed antenna. The activation of certain PIN diode switches configuration determines the polarization of DPTA. Dimension-wise this antenna is compact and small where it consists of 40mm radius. The proposed DPTA design successfully generated dual polarization omni-directional radiation pattern with maximum gain 1.81 dBi at angle of 0°/3600, 90°, 180° and 270°. Its small size, flexible and wearable features enables this DPTA to be easily integrated onto safety jacket and rain coat for tracking, search and rescue applications.