Textile-based Antennas for Off-Body Communication

The need for textile-based antennas originates from the development of smart textile systems that emerged in the nineties. The aim is to increase the functionality of textiles, in most cases, clothing, by adding electronic systems. This allows the monitoring of physical (such as heart or respiration rate) as well as environmental (such as humidity or temperature) parameters through an embedded sensor network. The availability of micro electronics on the one hand, and new textile materials on the other, stimulates this evolution. The development of integratable textile-based sensors and flexible interconnections is continuously ongoing research. Also, wireless data transfer from the garment to a nearby base-station requires new developments, especially when the flexibility and comfort of the garment needs to be preserved. This paper gives a detailed overview on performed research and reveals the feasibility, design and manufacturing process of textile-based antennas for this off-body communication. The antennas are low profile, breathable, light-weight and simple in structure which make them suitable to be unobtrusively embedded in apparel and provide flexibility and satisfactory performance.