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International audienceThis letter proposes an approach for the realization of three-dimensional flexible antennas based on the use of liquid metal and additive printing technologies. As a representative example, a miniaturized inverted-F antenna (IFA) operating at 885 MHz and suitable for wearable applications is designed, realized, and measured. The antenna sensitivity to the bending is strongly reduced, thanks to the proposed structure. The performance of the antenna in several bent configurations and in presence of the human body has been evaluated.},keywords={UHF antennas;liquid metals;rapid prototyping (industrial);three-dimensional printing;wearable antennas;3D flexible antenna realization;additive printing technology;antenna sensitivity;bent configurations;frequency 885 MHz;liquid metal;miniaturized inverted-F antenna;three-dimensional flexible antenna realization;wearable antenna;Additives;Antenna measurements;Antennas;Liquids;Metals;Phantoms;Three-dimensional displays;Additive technology;UHF;electro-textile;flexible antenna;liquid metal;wearable antenn

This study focuses on the design, simulation, and fabrication of a coplanar waveguide miniaturised wearable antenna that is fully implemented in textile materials and operable at 2.45/5.8 GHz for wireless local area network applications. This antenna is assumed to be placed near the human body, so that it needs to be miniaturised with excellent performances. To increase the performance of the short‐distance textile antenna and to control the specific absorption rate, an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is preferred as a reflector plane. The volume of the proposed antenna with AMC is 75 × 50 × 6 mm3, the simulation and measurement results are in good agreement and show that the antenna performances perform better results in comparison with the one reported so far in the literature while having a smaller volume. AMC significantly improves the performance of the antenna. The gains of the antenna are 8.2 and 9.95 dBi at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz, respectively (an increase of 3 dB compared with an antenna without AMC).

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