Practical design aspects for textile antennas

Antennas made out of textile materials suffer from performance perturbing effects whose impact mainly depend on the mechanical properties of the fabrics. The soft and flexible nature of the fabrics is essential for user comfort in wearable systems, but makes the antenna performance sensitive to bending, stretching, compression, and the manufacturing process. This paper discusses on practical design issues related to textile antenna design process. Examples are given for robust antenna designs for satellite communication and life jacket integrated antennas.