Design and fabrication of an E-shaped wearable textile antenna on PVB-coated hydrophobic polyester fabric

Satheesh Babu Roshni, M. P. Jayakrishnan, P. Mohanan, Kuzhichalil Peethambharan Surendran

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the simulation and fabrication of an E-shaped microstrip patch antenna realized on multilayered polyester fabric suitable for WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) applications. The main challenges while designing a textile antenna were to provide adequate thickness, surface uniformity and water wettability to the textile substrate. Here, three layers of polyester fabric were stacked together in order to obtain sufficient thickness, and were subsequently dip coated with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) solution. The PVB-coated polyester fabric showed a hydrophobic nature with a contact angle of 91°. The RMS roughness of the uncoated and PVB-coated polyester fabric was about 341 nm and 15 nm respectively. The promising properties, such as their flexibility, light weight and cost effectiveness, enable effortless integration of the proposed antenna into clothes like polyester jackets. Simulated and measured results in terms of return loss as well as gain were showcased to confirm the usefulness of the fabricated prototype. The fabricated antenna successfully operates at 3.37 GHz with a return loss of 21 dB and a maximum measured gain of 3.6 dB.
Original languageEnglish
Article number105011
JournalSmart Materials and Structures
Volume26
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2017

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