2.4 GHz Compact Textile Antenna for Body Wear Application and Monitoring of Health Parameters

Abstract

This paper has described a textile-based body-worn antenna. When compared to standard flat and stiff antennas and circuits, this technology delivers superior mechanical and radio frequency performance. Textile antennas have several advantages, including small size, lightweight, ease of fabrication, and low cost. As a result of these advantages, textile antennas are gaining popularity these days. There are different applications of textile antennas, but the main application or aim is to wear them comfortably and observe different body signals for analysis of different health parameters, like temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, etc., as the compactness of the antenna bending losses is less. In the design of an antenna, jeans fabric is employed as the substrate because this material is sturdy, stiff, of little density, accessible, and inexpensive with electromagnetic properties ℇr = 1.6 and tan ẟ = 0.01, and copper is used for the conducting patch and ground. This antenna operates in the industrial, scientific, and medical radio (ISM) band at 2.4 GHz with patch dimensions of 25 x 20 mm, making it proper for body-worn purposes. Because the antenna is so small, it can be readily mounted on an arm for health parameter monitoring with minimal bending. In sweaty conditions, it also operates in the ISM band. The simulation, fabrication, and body wear results are all included in the results section. As a result, these novel fibre antennas are useful to incorporate into shirts and coats for easy health monitoring with minimum loss.