Fabrication and Evaluation of Electro-Textiles for Wearable Antenna Applications

Abstract:

A compact wearable antenna fully made of textile-based materials for short range communication was designed and fabricated. A 3-axis automated dispensing robot coupled with a precision liquid dispenser was used to sequentially deliver copper sulfate (CuSO₄) and sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) on fabric surface to form conductive copper coatings. The copper coatings were characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The performance of antennas assembled with such copper-coated conductive textiles was accessed by transmission line method for their S₁₁ parameter values. The results demonstrated that such electroconductive textile-based antennas may serve as a wearable device and operate in the license free 2.45 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio band.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 671)
• Pages: 237-241
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.671.237
• Online since: November 2015
• Authors: Bing Li, Da Peng Li, Ji Ping Wang*
• Keywords: Copper Deposit, Direct Printing, Return Loss Value, Wearable Antenna

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