A Review of the Wearable Textile-Based Antenna using Different Textile Materials for Wireless Applications

Miniaturization of wireless systems empowered the use of the textile antenna for various purposes and has become one of the fastest developing technology in the world today. In general, textile antennas are microstrip antenna where the substrate is a textile material. Commercially, a variety of textile materials available these days, and the properties of these textiles have an impact on the characteristics and performance of an antenna. Normally, textile materials present a very low dielectric constant which is required for an efficient antenna. Nevertheless, textile fabrics are porous, anisotropic, and compressible materials whose thickness and density alters with low pressure affecting the electromagnetic properties of the material. The features of the textile materials were believed to impact the behavior of the antenna, hence this study shows minimal research highlighted on the differences of textile material properties. This review paper summarizes different types of antenna with their applications, essential antenna parameters, and the textile material used for the construction of the wearable textile antenna. This literature review guides to reveal the various considerations for designing wearable antenna from different textile materials. Lastly, several open recommendations are given for further guidance for future studies.