Wearable technology has been evolving from rigid electronic accessories toward soft and flexible electronic components that can be seamlessly integrated into a garment. [1] This new generation of wearables requires electronic textiles (E-textiles) to have enhanced comfort for the wearer with high flexibility and conformability which is similar to the properties of conventional textiles. E-textiles have received considerable interest due to their potential applicability in a variety of wearable clothing, such as sportswear, [2] military uniforms, [3] firefighting garments, [4] health-care products, [5] and tracking systems. [6] The functions of electronic devices composed of E-textiles include sensors for monitoring physical parameters (e.g., temperature, [7] humidity, [8] strain, [9] and pressure [10]) and biological signals (e.g., heart rate, [11] respiration, [12] and the composition of sweat [13]); energy storage [14] and energy harvesting devices; [15] and signal transmission and communication systems. [16] To achieve textiles with electronic functionalities, it is crucial to introduce electrically conductive materials such as metals, although the introduction of semiconducting and insulating materials may also be necessary depending on the intended application. Recently, aluminum, one of the metal conductors, has shown the potential to replace expensive metals such as silver and gold in E-textile applications. [17] There are two main approaches for patterning conductive materials on textile substrates, namely, utilizing conductive inks or suspensions (e.g., screen printing, inkjet printing, dispensing, and spray coating) [18] and using conductive yarns (e.g., embroidery, knitting, Jacquard weaving, and stitching). [19] Embroidery is one of the most popular methods for applying conductive yarns to a fabric substrate. Using this additive process, conductive lines or areas can be patterned on conventional nonconducting fabrics such as cotton and polyester, which is an advantage over knitting and Jacquard weaving. The embroidery process, however, is time-consuming and depending on the yarn thickness, there may be difficulties in obtaining a high resolution when filling in large areas. Furthermore, the embroidered area often has a thick and rigid structure, which degrades the flexibility and stretchability of the final wearable device. Direct-printing processes, such as inkjet printing and dispensing, utilizing conductive inks or suspensions have also been intensively studied for the fabrication of conductive patterns because they make it possible to produce various patterns with extremely high resolution. However, direct printing has a similar disadvantage to embroidery as the rates of these processes rely
In this paper, we analyze the effects of textile weaving and finishing processes on the performance of textile-based wearable antennas. Several textile-based patch antennas operating at 2.4 GHz were designed and fabricated for evaluation. All of them had the same geometry comprising a 1-mm-thick felt substrate in the middle, and silver ink screen-printed polyester fabric as the ground and patch at the bottom and on top. However, polyester fabric, the bare textile material for the conductive ground and patch was subjected to different weaving and finishing (tentering, scouring, and calendering) processes. It was observed that the antenna resonant frequency, bandwidth, radiation efficiency, and peak gain were varied by these processes, although the antenna geometry and screen-printing method were identical to each other. The best antenna exhibits a peak gain of 5.2 dBi and a radiation efficiency of 42.4%, while the worst shows corresponding values of 4.17 dBi and 34.8%. This implies that the weaving and finishing processes considerably impact textile-based wearable antenna performances. INDEX TERMS Conductive ink, conductive textile, patch antenna, screen printing, textile-based antenna, wearable antenna, weaving process. FIGURE 2. Simulation results of (a) S11 response, (b) 3D radiation pattern, and (c) Specific absorption rate.
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