Textile based stretchable microstrip antenna with intrinsic strain sensing

Nikbakhtnasrabadi, F. , El Matbouly, H., Ntagios, M. and Dahiya, R. (2021) Textile based stretchable microstrip antenna with intrinsic strain sensing. ACS Applied Electronic Materials, 3, pp. 2233-2246. (doi: 10.1021/acsaelm.1c00179)

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Abstract

This paper presents a textile-based stretchable microstrip patch antenna with intrinsic strain for e-textiles with seamlessly integrated multifunctional devices. Several microstrip antennas have been developed with the patch alone (stretchable up to 40%) or both the patch and the ground plane (stretchable up to 100%) meshed by using rectangular serpentine units. The changes in the resonant frequency of the meshed antennas, as a result of stretching, have been exploited to demonstrate the intrinsic uniaxial strain sensing. The obtained results indicate that resonant frequency decreases linearly with increasing applied strain, suggesting that the designed antennas can also be used as strain sensors with stretchability up to 100% and a sensitivity of 0.25. The results were validated through full-wave electromagnetic simulations and a two-dimensional digital image correlation (DIC) technique to model the antenna deformations during the tensile tests. In terms of stretchability, the meshed textile patch antenna on a solid ground plane showed more than a 2-fold improvement compared to a meshed gold patch antenna, showing a linear frequency shift. As potential applications, we demonstrate the use of a highly deformable fully meshed textile antenna as a strain sensor capable of measuring joint angles of a human limb. To do that, a microwave readout circuit based on RF to DC rectifier was realized. The rectifier obtained a peak conversion efficiency of 71% at 10 dBm input power overload resistor of 3 kΩ.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Nikbakhtnasrabadi, Dr Fatemeh and Dahiya, Professor Ravinder and Ntagios, Markellos
Authors: Nikbakhtnasrabadi, F., El Matbouly, H., Ntagios, M., and Dahiya, R.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering
College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
Journal Name:ACS Applied Electronic Materials
Publisher:American Chemical Society
ISSN:2637-6113
ISSN (Online):2637-6113
Published Online:03 May 2021
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2021 The Authors
First Published:First published in ACS Applied Electronic Materials 3: 2233-2246
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
301728Engineering Fellowships for Growth: Printed Tactile SKINRavinder DahiyaEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/R029644/1ENG - Electronics & Nanoscale Engineering
300756NPIF EPSRC Doctoral - University of Glasgow 2017Neil BoweringEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/R512266/1S&E - Research Administration