Performance of Textile Antenna using Two Layers of

Strip Line and Round-off Circular Patch

Warangkana Chaihongsa and Chuwong Phongcharoenpanich
Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand
kpchuwon@kmitl.ac.th

Abstract—In this paper, a dual band textile antenna operable This paper presents the design process and discussing on
at 2.4/5.2 GHz for WLAN application has been presented. The textile antenna for WLAN system following IEEE 802.11
wearable 1 mm thick felt fabric having relative permittivity of standards operating for the 2.4 GHz (2.40-2.48 GHz) and 5.2
1.90 and loss tangent of 0.016 has been used as substrate GHz (5.72-5.35GHz). The circle – truncated structure with
material. The return loss, radiation pattern and realized gain
defected ground plane is proposed. The truncation technique
measurements are used to characterize a prototype using vector
network analyzer and anechoic chamber. The |S11| is lower than - to improve the impedance matching. Is introduced the
10 dB covered the frequency band from 2.16 GHz to 2.63 GHz proposed antenna is compact and flexible designed on felt
and from 4.45 GHz to 5.90 GHz. The gains at two bands are 1.8 fabric using electro textile with high conductivity and low loss
dBi and 3.2 dBi, respectively. This antenna yields omnidirectional for the metallic elements. The antenna has been fabricated
pattern. The simulation and measurement results are in good made effective and commercially available.
agreement. Additional, the effects on the return loss for the The study of the behavior of is carried out antenna in free
antenna under the bent conditions are further discussed. space and near human body. The human body phantom was
designed in the electromagnetic simulator CST Microwave
Keywords—Textile antenna, dual-band antenna, WLAN,
wearable antenna
studio. The electromagnetic properties of human muscle, fat
and skin tissue was reported [8]. The return loss, radiation
patterns, gain were measured using Anechoic Chamber with
I. INTRODUCTION planar structure.
Nowadays wearable communication systems is a fast Section II describes the structure and parameters of textile
growing area in a topic of intense research. In addition, the antenna, analysis and results compared between the simulated
research on antenna on textile material is hot topics [1]–[6]. and measured return loss, radiation patterns, gain at the
These applications include healthcare, military, sport, fire frequencies of 2.45 GHz, 5.2 GHz and 5.8 GHz is presented
fighters, paramedics and safety applications. The antennas and discussed in section III. Section IV describes antenna
plays a key role in implementing the wireless communication. performance under bending and performance of the antenna
The antenna for wearable applications need to be comfortable on body reflection conditions. Section V concludes the paper.
to wear and original technology with inflexible substrates for
applications. The textile antennas built on common conductive
fabrics and felt or fleece are a preferred solution as they are
flexible and soft. The wearable antenna has to be body
conformal and not hindering the movement of the user.
Therefore, the wearable antenna has to be textile based
structure, made from conductive textile with several
requirements such as low electrical resistance, flexible and can
be deformed.
The Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) gets attention
wireless technology, thus being very attractive for body worn
battery operated devices. The antenna integrated in garment are
particularly interesting because they can use conductive
elements that are already in the clothes, following this trend.
The appropriated antenna for the suitable applications is
significant. Hence, for the specific applications such as Wi-Fi
indoor, low profile, low cost light weight, compact size,
flexible, soft, comfortable and dual band characteristics with
omnidirectional radiation pattern are necessary. However such
electronics have to meet special requirements concerning
wearability. Fig.1 Textile antenna designed for WLAN application
(a) Front view (b) Rear view

978-1-4673-9149-8/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

 II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The proposed antenna design is carried out using
CST Microwave Studio Software (MWS). The proposed
antenna is designed and fabricated with felt fabric with a
thickness of 1.0 mm and dielectric substrate with dielectric
constant of 1.90. The overall size of the proposed antenna is
26mm × 47mm. The antenna structure and its parameters is
shown in Fig 2. The upper layer consists of a strip line with
the impedance matching of 50Ÿ. The lower layer consists of
round-off circular patch with defected ground plane. The
conductive textile, the conductivity of the textile material has
to be determined from the thickness and the surface resistance
of the textile, using the following equation [7].
1
σ= , (1)
Rs × t
radiation patterns, impedance bandwidth and gain are
discussed. The simulation is carried out by CST Microwave
Studio program. In Fig 3. The simulated and measured return
loss of proposed antenna have shown. A good agreement
between simulation and measurement is observed. The
measured |S11| is lower than -10 dB covering frequency range
from 2.16 to 2.63 GHz in lower band and from 4.45 to 5.90
GHz in upper band. The simulated and measured radiation
patterns in xz plane and yz plane are illustrated in Fig.4 and
Fig.5, respectively. Similar result are found for the different
frequencies. The antenna yields omnidirectional pattern with
gains of 1.8 dBi, 2.74 dBi, and 3.24 dBi in Table II
respectively at the frequency of 2.45 GHz, 5.20 GHz and 5.80
GHz, respectively.

where Rs is the surface resistance of the material, t is the

thickness of the material and σ is the conductivity of
material. The substrate used in the antenna design is 1.0 mm
felt composed from acrylic fiber. The conductivity is 1.29×10-
5
S/m. and the surface resistivity is less than 0.05 Ÿ/square.
The designed parameters are tabulated in Table I.

Fig.3 Simulated and measured|S11| versus frequency.

2.4 GHz 5.2 GHz 5.8 GHz

0dB 0dB 0dB

-10dB -10dB - 10dB

-20dB -20dB - 20dB

-30dB -30dB - 30dB

Fig.2 The proposed textile antenna structure.

Simulated : Co-pol Cross-pol

TABLE I. Measured : Co-pol Cross-pol

PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA Fig.4 Simulated and measured radiation pattern in xz plane
Parameter Size(mm) Parameter Size(mm)
X 26.0 Y1 19.5 2.4 GHz 5.2 GHz 5.8 GHz
0dB 0dB
0dB
- 10dB - 10dB
Y 47.0 X2 10.0 -10dB

-20dB -20dB - 20dB

Wf 1.5 Y2 20.0 -30dB -30dB - 30dB

Lf 43.5 R 10.0

X1 20.0 H 1.0

Simulated : Co-pol Cross-pol

III. SIMULATED AND MEASURED RESULTS Measured : Co-pol Cross-pol

In this section, the comparison of simulated and Fig. 5 Simulated and measured radiation pattern in yz plane
measured results of the proposed antenna such as |S11|,
 TABLE II SIMULATED AND MEASURED GAINS After designing the antenna in free space, the simulations
Frequency (GHz) Simulated gain Measured gain were then carried out to analyze antenna on body
(dBi) (dBi) environment. The properties of the tissues normally changes
2.40 1.80 1.60 with the frequency and the thickness of the tissues [8]. The
5.20 2.74 2.65 properties of the three layers of tissue for a young male
5.80 3.24 3.12
phantom are tabulated in Table III
In the terms of performance, very good results were obtained
regarding return loss, gain and radiation pattern. TABLE III PROPERTIES OF THREE LAYER TISSUE MODEL
Tissues
εr σ (S/m) tan δ
IV. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE UNDER BENDING AND ON-BODY
Skin 35.114 3.717 0.328
REFLECTION CONDITIONS
Fat 4.955 0.293 0.183
Muscle 48.485 4.962 0.317
In this section, the impedance matching performance of
the textile antenna under bending conditions will be discussed. Fig.7 shows the simulated of the proposed antenna on body
The antenna is studied from conventional flat from and at a and in free space by the electromagnetic simulator CST
bending diameter of 20 to 50 mm at the frequencies of 2.45 Microwave Studio. The antenna covers WLAN bands suitable
GHz, 5.20 GHz and 5.80 GHz, respectively. The for body wireless network applications. The antenna has been
electromagnetic simulator CST Microwave Studio is used to simulated in free space and simulated on body human. The
model the behavior of the proposed antenna which operates at main reason the absorption in the human body is cause on
the intended frequencies in Fig. 6. antenna performance. Although, the proposed antenna can
covers in WLAN bands at the frequencies of 2.4/5.2 GHz, to
0
the effect of human body is significant.
-5
-10
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a dual – band textile antenna for WLAN
|S11| (dB)

-15
applications has been presented. The return loss, radiation and
-20 realized gain at the frequencies 2.45 GHz, 5.20 GHz and 5.80
-25 d=20 mm GHz covers all bands of WLAN. When the simulated the
d=30 mm antenna is under bending structure, it can cover all bands of
-30 d=40 mm
d=50 mm
WLAN as well as with humen body.
-35 The textile antenna is compact size, low cost, low profile,
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 flexible and easy to integrate in clothing. The proposed
Frequency (GHz ) antenna can be a good candidate applying for textile material
Fig. 6 Simulated reflection coefficients for bending structure apply in WLAN system.

In the lower band, the resonant frequency shifts REFERENCES

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