Design and Verification of IR-UWB Localisation Sensor Node with Cavity-Backed Textile Antenna

Abstract

This paper handles the design and verification of a localisation sensor with a cavity-backed slot antenna. The sensor node uses a Decawave DW1000 chipset, together with a basic sensor, a microcontroller and a flash memory card. It is designed on a mechanically flexible Printed Circuit Board (PCB), where component edges and vias are aligned forming rigid lines. As antenna a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) design is proposed: a cavity-backed slot antenna combining vulcanised rubber foam and electrotextile. Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) localisation is analysed by the pulse deformation in the System Fidelity Factor (SFF) and the phase shift in the Distance Estimation Error (DEE). On-body measurements show that everything works fine.