60-GHz Textile Antenna Array for Body-Centric Communications

To demonstrate that commercial textiles can be used as antenna substrates at millimeter waves, a microstrip patch antenna array printed on textile is proposed for off-body communications in the 60-GHz band. The textile substrate is characterized in V-band using the open stub technique. A new fabrication process is introduced for the reliable and accurate manufacturing of millimeter-wave microstrip antennas on textiles. The antenna reflection coefficient, radiation patterns and efficiency are studied in free space, with and without bending, and on a homogeneous skin-equivalent phantom. The numerical and experimental results are in a good agreement. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first textile millimeter-wave antenna optimized for off-body communications presented in the literature at millimeter waves.