Effect of Textile Properties on a Low-Profile Wearable Loop Antenna for Healthcare Applications

In this paper, numerical and experimental studies on performance evaluation of low-profile wearable loop antenna for healthcare monitoring applications are conducted. Parametric studies on the effect of textile cotton fabric properties, considering the electrical permittivity and substrate thickness, are investigated in order to evaluate the trend on loop antenna’s resonance behavior. Experimental validation is also carried out and comparison is made. Good agreement between modeled wearable loop antenna and the fabricated one was obtained, with almost 3% shift in resonance frequncy, due to the estimated textile properties within the simulation model. The effect of implanting the wearable antenna on close-proximity to a modeled arm phantom is also numerically studied and assessed.