Dual Polarized Textile Patch Antenna for Integration Into Protective Garments

In the context of wearable textile systems for rescue workers, antennas are needed that exhibit robustness to channel fading and, in addition, are completely integrable into protective garments. Therefore, a dual polarized patch antenna, made out of textile materials, is proposed. The antenna is intended for operation in the ISM band [2.4, 2.4835] GHz, permits to exploit polarization diversity and is fully integrable into protective garments. To our knowledge, it is the first textile antenna with dual polarization. Several prototypes have been realized and their performances were investigated by measurements and simulations, proving the effectiveness of the antenna in open-space and on-body operation.