Wearable Circularly Polarized Antenna for Personal Satellite Communication and Navigation

Integrating antennas into fabrics is a potential way for facilitating many applications, such as health monitoring of patients, fire-fighting, rescue work, and space and military personal communications. This paper studies possibilities to construct a flexible, lightweight and mechanically robust textile antenna for dual-band satellite use: Iridium and GPS. Different textile materials were characterized and the most promising materials were used to design, construct, and test a rectangular patch antenna. The gain and axial ratio for both bands is compliant with specifications and relatively stable under most bending conditions. The developed antenna solution allows integration into clothing.