Slit Loaded Textile Microstrip Antennas

Abstract

ABSTRACT Wearable antennas have become popular due to the emerging trend of body area networks. Textile antenna is a type of wearable antenna which uses textile material for its substrate or patch. It is used in body worn applications such as healthcare, military, and space communication. Mobility is the main constraint in wearable antennas. Hence circular polarization is necessary for textile antennas which can be achieved by inserting slits in the periphery of the patch. This paper includes the performance analysis of slit loaded textile antennas. Four types of textile antennas: without slits, with truncated corners, V-shaped slits, and square-shaped slits are designed with wash cotton and denim substrate using software HFSS. In this paper, we have compared the designed textile antennas with FR4 substrate antenna. Result shows the superiority of the textile antenna with respect to the circular polarization, gain, and return loss. The gain of the textile antenna measured is very high compared to that of the FR4 antenna. Since the Antennas are mounted on the humans, it is essential to measure the specific absorption rate of the antennas. It is observed that the insertion of slit changes the resonant frequency of the antenna and circular polarization is achieved. The designed antennas give optimum performance in terms of return loss, VSWR, and gain; the antennas were radiating within the prescribed limit of 1.6 W/Kg as per the FCC.