Realization and Analysis of a Novel Low-Profile Embroidered Textile Antenna for Real-time Pulse Monitoring

Abstract

In this paper, a novel four-layered low-profile, textile antenna operating in the Industrial Scientific and Medical band (ISM) has been proposed for wearable applications. The proposed antenna was completely made from textile materials with the substrate being cotton and the conductive portions done by embroidering Zari threads to the substrate. The realized antenna has a compact profile of 51 mm x 45 mm x 0.785 mm. To improve the return loss and gain, a rectangular slot of dimension 10 mm x 10 mm was introduced. On-body analysis also shows that the antenna has powerful performance with specific absorption rates well below the threshold specified by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for 1g and 10g tissue. In addition to validate the design, real-time deployment with a Particle Photon was done to continuously monitor the heart rate and upload it to the Particle app via cloud. The fabricated antenna was also evaluated under bent, crumpled, moisture absorbed and on-body conditions where the antenna performance was measured by Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of the network connected to and the round-trip time taken by the device to successfully respond to the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) message sent by the Particle Cloud. On analysis, it was seen that the performance of the antenna was unaffected by the deformations induced making it best suited for on-body applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Conductive silver Zari
• Embroidered antenna
• On-body analysis
• Particle Photon integration
• Specific absorption rate
• Textile microstrip patch antenna

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank SSN Trust, AICTE and DST for assisting in radiation pattern measurements.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by the DST SERB [grant number SB/S3/EECE/055/2016].

Notes on contributors

Abirami Anbalagan

Abirami Anbalagan received her BE degree in electronics and communication and ME in communication systems. She is currently working as a senior research fellow in a project sanctioned by DST. She is also working towards her PhD degree in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, Kalavakkam, TamilNadu, India. Her research interests include wearable antenna design, electromagnetic bandgap structures and embedded systems.

Esther Florence Sundarsingh

Esther Florence Sundarsingh is an associate professor in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, India. Her research interests include design and analysis of microwave components like antennas for wearable applications, applications of flexible substrates in the design of microwave components. Email: [email protected]

Vimal Samsingh Ramalingam

Vimal Samsingh Ramalingam serves as an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. He completed his doctorate in the area of microwave NDT. His research interests include development of sensors for non-destructive testing, material testing using microwave sensors, mechatronics and composite material development. Email: [email protected]

Aadesh Samdaria

Aadesh Samdaria received his BE degree in electronics and communication engineering from Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, India in 2019. He is currently working as a software engineer at Freshworks, India. His research interests include the development of bio-robotic prosthetics and textile antennas. Email: [email protected]

David Ben Gurion

David Ben Gurion received his BE degree in electronics and communication engineering from Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, India in 2019. He is currently working as an assistant systems engineer in Tata Consultancy Services, India. His research interests include antenna design, wireless communication and automation. Email: [email protected]

Karthik Balamurugan

Karthik Balamurugan received his BE degree in electronics and communication engineering from Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, India in 2019. His research interests include wireless networks and biomedical instrumentation. Email: [email protected]