Flexible Bluetooth Antennas Integrated with Electrodes for Wearable ECG Sensors

This paper presents the design of flexible Bluetooth antennas integrated with electrodes for flexible electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors. The proposed curved inverted-F antenna (CIFA) integrates with ECG electrodes on a thin PDMS substrate for Bluetooth transceivers. The integrated ECG electrode provides an RF ground plane for the CIFA as well as a protection against mechanical deformation. ANSYS simulations show good performance of the proposed antennas for mechanical deformations under tensile, bi-axial, and bending deformation modes. The measurement further confirms the robust RF performance under bi-axial tensile strains up to 20%.