5G-enabled e-textiles Based on a low-profile millimeter-wave textile antenna

Wagih, M. , Hilton, G. S., Weddell, A. and Beeby, S. (2022) 5G-enabled e-textiles Based on a low-profile millimeter-wave textile antenna. Engineering Proceedings, 15(1), 13. (doi: 10.3390/engproc2022015013)

Abstract

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are a key application underpinned by advances in electronic textiles (e-textiles). Achieving higher throughput, data-rate, network capacity, and delivering wireless power to miniaturized devices requires WBANs to operate at millimeter-wave 5G+ frequencies. This, however, imposes significant challenges on the antenna design to cope with the additional losses introduced by textile substrates. In this paper, the performance of a novel, high-efficiency, textile-based millimeter-wave antenna is investigated for wireless links with a wearable device. Indoor “real-world” channel gain measurements are used to evaluate the antenna’s performance compared to anechoic gain measurements. Based on the measured channel gain between textile antennas, it is concluded that high-speed wireless links in the 24–30 GHz 5G+ spectrum could be realized with over one meter range using e-textile antennas.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Presented at the 3rd International Conference on the Challenges, Opportunities, Innovations and Applications in Electronic Textiles (E-Textiles 2021), Manchester, UK, 3–4 November 2021. Funding: This work was supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under Grant EP/P010164/1. The work of Steve Beeby was supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering under the Chairs in Emerging Technologies Scheme. Data access: The datasets used in this work are available from doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1931.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wagih, Dr Mahmoud
• Authors: Wagih, M., Hilton, G. S., Weddell, A., and Beeby, S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Engineering Proceedings
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2673-4591
• ISSN (Online): 2673-4591
• Published Online: 15 March 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © 2022 by the authors
• First Published: First published in Engineering Proceedings 15(1): 13
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence