Switchable textile microstrip antenna for on/off-body communications and shape distortion study

Abstract

This paper presents the performance of a switchable textile microstrip antenna on stripline working at 2.45GHz. It has on/off-body communication modes which are controlled by two PIN diodes. The results show antenna gain of 2dBi in the off-body mode, and approximately 2dB transmission loss within 100mm distance in the on-body mode. A bending test is also applied to a microstrip antenna in order to further understand the textile antenna performance under shape distortion conditions. Both input impedance and radiation patterns are investigated based on numerical and experimental methods.