The Analysis of Influence of Textile Antenna

Location on Its Performance

Łukasz Januszkiewicz1
1
: Lodz University of Technology, Institute of Electronics, Wolczanska 211/215, PL 90-924 Lodz, Poland,
lukasz.januszkiewicz@p.lodz.pl

Abstract—In the paper the analysis of the influence of textile the aramid textile base material of 0.4 mm thickness. The
antenna location on its radiation pattern is presented. The prototype antenna is presented in Figure 1b. The resistivity of
analysis is based on a textile Vee type antenna proposed by the one antenna arm measured from the beginning to the end of
author that operates in 2.4 GHz ISM band. It was made with
textile base material and conducting fibers that were
its length was below 0.5 . The input impedance of the textile
embroidered to form the radiator. The antenna radiation pattern Vee antenna depends on the geometry of the conducting arms
for on-body location is firstly examined with computer and their width. The shape and the distance between the arm
simulations in XFdtd program. The computer simulation results was optimized with Remcom XFdtd® computer program for
are then verified with measurements. Performance of the textile the best impedance matching in 2.4 GHz band. To obtain a
antenna is compared with a standard dipole antenna that is good rendering of the prototype antenna geometry it was
easily available for 2.4 GHz band. required to use precise textile machines. With computerized
Index Terms—textile antenna, wearable antenna, wireless embroidery machine it is possible to obtain a conductive layer
body area networks, WBAN, measurement, FDTD. of a very well controlled shape which is important in
fabrication of curved radiators.
I. TEXTILE VEE ANTENNA
In wireless body area networks (WBAN) the transceiver and
its antenna can be located very close to the human body. This
specific environment requires an antenna that does not reduce
the comfort of the user and its operation is not strongly
affected by the proximity of the human body. For WBAN
systems special wearable antennas are designed such that
when placed close to the human body still keep their electrical
parameters similar to standard telecommunication antennas.
They have also lightweight and flexible construction that
allows to maintain user’s comfort. Recent progress in material
technology resulted in the development of textile antennas for
wearable personal communication systems. Textile antennas
are of similar size to standard microstrip antennas but their
flexible form makes them unobtrusive to the user [1-2].
Fig. 1. Textile vee antenna: a – computer model, b – prototype
Textile Vee antennas are simple to manufacture compared to
textile antennas that base on layered microstrip geometry.
Textile Vee antenna consist of 2 conducting arms that are
located on a dielectric textile base material (see Figure 1a).
The feeding cable (or transmitter) is connected to the arms at
the point that is shown in Figure 1. The concept and the
design of the antenna was discussed in [3-4]. Prototype
antenna was made for a wireless system for remote
monitoring of firefighters during training. The antenna was
designed to be integrated into firefighter’s jacket (see figure 2)
and to operate in 2.4 GHz ISM band. This application requires
good durability of the prototype. For this reason it was made
using the embroidering technique that is far more resistant to
mechanical damage than previously used physical vapor
Fig. 2. The Firefighter’s jacket with the pocket for textile antenna
deposition of thin metal layer on the textile substrate [5]. The
radiating paths were embroidered with conducting fibers on
In Figure 3 the results of antenna input impedance
measurements are presented for free space and on body
location (1 cm from the chest and 1 cm from the arm). In
Figure 4 antenna impedance match is shown in the form a of
voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) with reference to 50 
impedance. The impedance of the antenna is not sensitive to
the presence of human body. The impedance match of the
antenna does not change significantly between free space and
on-body location covering in both cases 2.4 GHz ISM band
with VSWR less than 1.7 what makes it useful for WBAN
applications.
Fig. 3. Measured textile antenna input impedance for free space and on body
location
Fig. 4. Measured textile antenna impedance matching for free space and on
body location
II. COMPUTER SIMULATIONS OF THE ANTENNA RADIATION
PATTERN
The aim of the research was to analyze the sensitivity of
the textile Vee antenna radiation pattern to the antenna location
on human body. The motivation to this work follows from the
need of setting up the placement of the pockets for antenna and
transceiver on firefighter’s jacket. This requires a compromise
between the location that gives the best radiation pattern and
the location that does not interact with firefighter’s equipment.
As the antenna wearer is mobile and the base station antenna
does not change its position, the most desirable radiation
pattern has a broad main beam that makes the channel
attenuation more stable than in the case of narrow beam. To
examine the radiation pattern of the antenna the author
employed Remcom XFdtd® EM simulation software that uses
finite difference time domain numerical method [6]. In figure 5
the antenna radiation pattern simulated for free space is
presented . The antenna radiation is analyzed for 2.45 GHz that
is the middle of the ISM band. The radiation pattern is
normalized for antenna maximum gain that was equal to 4 dBi
(for linear polarization, parallel to  vector). The plots are
oriented in the x-z and x-y plane referring to coordinates
presented in Figure 1.
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Simulated textile antenna radiation pattern in free space G: a- x-z
plane, b- x-y plane
The radiation pattern of wearable antennas depends
strongly on the location of the antenna on the body and the
distance between the body and the antenna [7 – 9]. In the
considered case the distance between the body and antenna is
set up by the thickness and the shape of firefighter’s clothes.
During the training exercises this distance can change due to
the relative movement of the jacket and the body. A further
study aims at the analysis of the relations between different
antenna locations on the jacket and the antenna radiation
pattern. For this reason the distance between the body and the
antenna was assumed to be constant and equal to 2 cm that
refers to the standing position of the firefighter.
To analyze the influence of human body on the antenna
radiation it was necessary to use a numerical human body
model that was located close to the numerical model of the
antenna. In figure 6 the simulation setup is presented which
includes NMR Hershey human body model that is available in
Remcom XFdtd® program with Bio Pro module.
It is very difficult to create the numerical model of the
clothes that fit to the numerical model of the body in the same
manner as in the real case. To simplify the computer model
used for simulations the influence of clothes to the antenna
radiation pattern was neglected. This approximation is justified
by the fact that textile materials are mostly sparse dielectrics
and their influence on the antenna radiation is limited to the Antenna
Antenna radiation pattern in azimuth plane (x-y)
surroundings of the antenna. position
The antenna was examined in 4 positions towards human
body, what is presented in Figure 6. The results of radiation
pattern simulations for different locations of antenna on the
human body are presented in table1. The radiation pattern is
presented in the form of the antenna gain in azimuth plane for 3
linear, vertical polarization.

III. MEASUREMENTS OF ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERN

Fig. 6. Antenna locations on human body FOR ON-BODY LOCATION
The radiation pattern of the textile antenna was measured
TABLE I. RESULT OF TEXTILE ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERN for various positions on the human body. The measurements
SIMULATIONS were conducted in a quasi open area test site with a human
Antenna subject. The prototype antenna was covered with upper and
Antenna radiation pattern in azimuth plane (x-y)
position lower layer of aramid fabric to protect the radiator from
damage during antenna installation. The antenna was placed in
specially prepared pockets on a firefighter’s jacket located in
the positions presented in Figure 5. The textile antenna was
connected to the Rohde & Schwarz FSH 8 spectrum analyzer.
The measurement antenna was Rohde & Schwarz H907 fed
1
by Rohde & Schwarz SMB 100A signal generator. Radiation
pattern was measured for the horizontal plane (human subject
was placed on a turntable) with the vertical polarization at 2.45
GHz. To keep a stable and constant position of the human
subject, the time of measurement had to be limited to 10
minutes. This allowed to sample the radiation pattern with 5
resolution. The results of antenna radiation pattern
measurements are presented in Table 2.
The radiation properties of textile antenna were compared
with the radiation of a half wave dipole antenna. The dipole
2 antenna is often used as a reference to study the influence of
human body on the antenna directivity [8,10-12] due to the
simplicity of its construction and omnidirectional radiation
pattern. The dipole used for measurements was designed for
2.4 GHz ISM band and was located in the same pockets in the
firefighter’s jacket that were used for the textile antenna. As
the dipole antenna has a different geometry than the textile
antenna the textile inserts were prepared to stabilize dipole in
the vertical position inside the pockets. The inserts were made
of the same aramid fabric that was used for manufacturing the
prototype of textile antenna. In the Figure 7 the radiation IV. CONCLUSIONS
pattern of the textile antenna and the dipole located in position The research presented in the paper was carried out to
1 is presented. Figure 8 presents the results obtained for
antennas located in position 2.
examine the differences between antenna radiation
patterns obtained for various antenna locations on the
human body. It covered a particular application scenario
TABLE II. RESULT OF TEXTILE ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERN
MEASUREMENTS that is a textile Vee antenna operating in 2.4 GHz band
Antenna
and located on the firefighter’s jacket.
position
Antenna radiation pattern in azimuth plane (x-y) The theoretical and experimental investigation results
presented in the paper indicate that wearable antenna
radiation pattern depends strongly on antenna location
on the human body. The results obtained with computer
simulation and measurements shows that human body
modifies antenna performance which results in lowering
1 antenna gain for the directions that are
obstructed/shadowed by the human body.
The results of simulations and measurements show
similar orientation of the main lobes and the minima of
the radiation pattern but they differ with the beam width
and the back lobes. This may be caused by differences
in antenna distance to the human body in a simple
computer model (2 cm) and measurement experiment
with only one person. The firefighter’s jacket is not very
closely fitted to the human body so there is a possibility
2 that the distance between the body surface and the
pocket with antenna was slightly greater than the
intended 2 cm. Another reason of discrepancy between
simulation and measurement may be the influence of the
jacket material that was not taken into consideration in
the computer model. The author intends to further
investigate this issue.
The textile antenna compared to the dipole antenna (see
Figures. 6 and 7) shows similar radiation pattern shape
but the maximum gain is greater for the textile antenna.
3
This is probably caused by dipole antenna impedance
detuning in the presence of the jacket and the human
body.
The results of the presented research will be used to
recommend the best location of textile antenna in
firefighter’s jacket that will be used in wireless system
which monitors the vital signs during his training.

4

Fig. 7. Measured radiation pattern of the textile antenna and dipole located
in position 1.
Fig. 8. Measured radiation pattern of the textile antenna and the dipole
located in position 2. Results of measurements of signal attenuation for
diferent body models in off-body WBAN scenario.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research is supported by The National Centre
for Research and Development (POLAND)
through grant NR O ROB 0014 01/ ID 14/1
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