Towards Washable Wearable Antennas: A Comparison of Coating Materials for Screen-Printed Textile-Based UHF RFID Tags

Kellomäki, Tiiti; Virkki, Johanna; Merilampi, Sari; Ukkonen, Leena

doi:10.1155/2012/476570

Cited by 59 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…Can the artificial axons function as wearable and washable conductors for active textiles? Many stretchable conductors have been developed to enable wearable active textiles [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] , but making them washable is challenging [21][22][23] . Among recent advances, the technology of silver nanowire/PDMS composite stands out.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wearable and Washable Conductors for Active Textiles

Floch

Yao

Liu

et al. 2017

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

135

116

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ABSTRACT:The emergence of stretchable electronics and its potential integration with textiles have highlighted a challenge: textiles are wearable and washable, but electronic devices are not. Many stretchable conductors have been developed to enable wearable active textiles, but little has been done to make them washable. Here we demonstrate a new class of stretchable conductors that can endure wearing and washing conditions commonly associated with textiles.Such a conductor consists of a hydrogel, a dissolved hygroscopic salt, and a butyl rubber coating.The hygroscopic salt enables ionic conduction, and matches the relative humidity of the hydrogel 2 to the average ambient relative humidity. The butyl rubber coating prevents the loss and gain of water due to the daily fluctuation of ambient relative humidity. We develop the chemistry of dip coating the butyl rubber onto the hydrogel, using silanes to achieve both the crosslink of the butyl rubber and the adhesion between the butyl rubber and the hydrogel. We test the endurance of the conductor by soaking it in detergent while stretching it cyclically, and by machinewashing it. The loss of water and salt is minimal. It is hoped that these conductors open applications in healthcare, entertainment, and fashion.3

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wearable and Washable Conductors for Active Textiles

Floch

Yao

Liu

et al. 2017

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

135

116

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“…The first screen-printed textile antennas appeared in 2008 [48]. In addition, washable screenprinted textile antennas for 2.45 GHz ISM band [32][51] and for UHF-RFID tags [34] were introduced in 2012. In 2013, it was demonstrated that textile antennas may be inkjet-printed, provided a screen-printed interface layer is first applied to reduce the surface roughness of the textile substrate [49] [50].…”

Section: B Materials and Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The wideband material properties found by non-resonant methods may be used as initial values in a second more accurate resonancebased procedure, where narrowband patch antennas are constructed that resonate close to the frequency band of interest [17], [22]. These structures also enable to accurately quantify the effects of relative humidity or moisture [16], [19], [26], [35], of compression or strain [29], and of repeated washing cycles on the material properties [32]- [34], [36].…”

Section: Electrotextile Patch Antennamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wearable Antennas for Off-Body Radio Links at VHF and UHF Bands: Challenges, the state of the art, and future trends below 1 GHz

Nepa

Rogier

2015

IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag.

106

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Abstract-An in-depth survey of wearable antennas for offbody radio links in the VHF and UHF frequency bands (below 1 GHz) is presented. The review encompasses distinctive specifications, design criteria and challenges, material characterization procedures, antenna topologies and technologies, multi-antenna systems, dedicated testing procedures, applications and future trends.Index Terms-Wearable antennas, body-worn antennas, textile antennas, embroidered antennas, VHF antennas, UHF antennas, antennas for body-centric communications, antennas for body area networks, antennas for personal area networks, antennas for off-body wireless communications. I. INTRODUCTIONhere are several existing and forthcoming wireless applications that either require or can benefit from one or more antennas that are directly stitched on a piece of clothing or a garment, or integrated into a personal accessory (such as shoes, glasses, buttons, helmets). These antennas are usually referred to as body-worn antennas, textile antennas, BAN (Body Area Network) antennas, antennas for body-centric communications, wearable antennas. The last term is the one that is going to be used in this paper, as it denotes any antenna that is small and light enough to be worn or carried on one's body.In the last decades, hundreds of scientific papers on wearable antennas have been published in the open literature [1]- [8]. Therefore, for the sake of completeness and clarity, a valuable analysis of the state-of-the-art on wearable antennas should be limited to antennas for a specific application, a given frequency range, or a chosen antenna technology. In this context, the present review focuses on wearable antennas operating in the VHF band and part of the UHF frequency band (below 1 GHz). Choosing 1 GHz as an upper boundary for this review is highly relevant, as the operating frequency is usually the main parameter to discriminate among available antenna topologies, technologies and characterization techniques. Moreover, we limit our discussion on antennas for off-body radio links, also excluding antennas integrated into mobile terminals/cases and operating close to the body. Specifically, only wearable antennas that can be used separately from the radio unit are of interest here.VHF/UHF wearable antennas are mostly used in professional mobile radio communications for soldiers, emergency operators and law-enforcement personnel. VHF As far as VHF/UHF wearable antennas are concerned, many of their distinctive features are related to the fact that the corresponding free-space wavelength (with 30cm<<10m when 30MHz

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“…Several papers have been published addressing the design of a specific sensor [3][4] [5] or a specific antenna [6] [7] [8] [9] on textile substrate and some publications have been devoted to characterize and model the fabrics [10] and demonstrate the functionally of e-textile as an electromagnetic shielding [11]. Most of these research works overlay these electronic devices on the fabrics by means of embroidery textile techniques [12][13] or printed techniques [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%