Investigation of Flexible Textile Antennas and AMC Reflectors

Abstract

In this paper, two different methods for fabric characterization are presented: a single frequency method and a broadband method. Felt and denim fabrics are characterized, and patch antennas are designed using these substrates to test both methods. Prototypes of the antennas on felt and denim are manufactured using conductive textile (called electrotextile) aiming to obtain fully flexible antennas. The prototypes are characterized in anechoic chamber to be compared and obtain conclusions related to the characterization methods. A new dual-band hexagonal AMC reflector combinable with antennas is also proposed to improve their performance and reduce the backward radiation to the human body. A novel broadband CPW-fed monopole antenna is designed to be combined with the AMC. The resulted prototype is characterized and compared with the performance of the CPW-fed antenna alone.

Facing the angular stabilization of loop-based artificial magnetic conductors through lumped inductors

“…The AMC surface impedance Z s , comes from the parallel connection of Z g and Z d , and varies with the frequency (ω), the polarization angle of the incident electric field (φ) and the incidence angle (θ): (1) The reflection coefficient Γ is obtained through Zs and (the free space impedance): (2) The complete angular stability analysis, for both TE and TM polarized incident plane-waves, is conducted by calculating the reflection coefficient phase in simulation as follows: for each polarization angle φ, varied from 0º to 90º in 15º steps, the incidence angle θ is varied from 0º to 60º also in 15º steps. The phase reference plane is taken at the periodic surface and using a PEC placed in the same position as reference [4].…”

“…Artificial Magnetic Conductors (AMCs) are Metasurfaces (MTSs) designed to exhibit in-phase reflection (i.e to behave as a Perfect Magnetic Conductors, PMCs, which do not exist in Nature) targeting them for a wide range of marketed applications, from antenna radiation enhancement and RFID tags on metallic objects [1] to Radar Cross Section (RCS) and Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) reduction [2], to name only a few.…”

A NOVEL 2.45 GHz SWITCHABLE BEAM TEXTILE ANTENNA (SBTA) FOR OUTDOOR WIRELESS BODY AREA NETWORK (WBAN) APPLICATIONS

“…fabrication procedure is explained in [28]. Polyester-based textiles such as ShieldIt are also more hydrophobic, which reduces proneness to moisture absorption and thus allows for better conservation its electromagnetic properties [29].…”

Performance Characteristics of ‘Triangle-Like’ Shape Textile Antennas

“…It is obtained by interleaving normal fabric with conductive metal/polymer threads (Mantash et al, 2012). Two different conductive textiles are used in this work: Pure Copper Polyester Taffeta Fabric (PCPTF) and ShieldIt Super (SS), both from Less EMF Inc, USA.…”