Characterization of a simple broadband textile planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) for on body communications

Bandwidth characteristics of a wearable antenna are one of the major factors in determining its usability on the human body. In this work, a novel structure is proposed to achieve a large bandwidth, in order to avoid serious antenna reflection coefficient detuning when placed in proximity of the body. The proposed structure is designed based on a simple structure, in order to provide practicality in real world applications and at the same time, fabrication simplicity. Two different types of conductive textiles, namely Pure Copper Polyester Taffeta Fabric (PCPTF) and ShieldIt, are used in order to proof its concept, in comparison with a metallic antenna made from copper plate. The two layered design is fabricated and spaced by a 6 mm thick fleece fabric. A conventional plain structure, in contrast to the introduced design, is also fabricated in order to proof its bandwidth broadening capability, aside from a sensitivity analysis. From this investigation, it is found that the mentioned proposed structure extended the bandwidth by a factor two compared to the measured plain copper plate antenna, with an almost similar gain and radiation pattern characteristic.