Flexible Substrate Materials for Wearable Antennas

Abstract

Several flexible substrate materials potentially usable for wearable antennas are presented in this paper, including rubber, leather and foam. The measured electrical characteristics are compared to show their pros and cons in view of wearable antenna design. Two planar inverted-F antennas based on two promising materials are designed, fabricated and measured. Material characteristics and experimental results suggest that natural rubber, which has a relative permittivity of around 6.4 is an appropriate flexible material for wearable antennas.