Textile artificial magnetic conductor waveguide jacket for on-body transmission enhancement

Abstract

Diamond dipole antennas with textile Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) sheet-like waveguide were designed to investigate the possibility of improving transmission between antennas. Fleece fabric is used as the substrate of the textile AMC while SHIELDIT fabric is used as the conductive patches and ground plane. The AMC surface is designed to resonate at 2.45 GHz with the goal to enhance the transmission between antennas. A small textile AMC waveguide sheet as well as an AMC waveguide jacket were fabricated. The S-parameters performance of the two antennas with textile AMC sheet was investigated in a free space environment and near to human body setting. The effect of different antennas' orientations was also considered. Measurements were conducted thoroughly to validate the simulated findings. Compared to free space environment, S21 transmission between two dipoles is improved up to maximum -10 dB when having textile AMC waveguide sheet beneath them. For both off-body and on-body placements, significant transmission enhancement has been observed with the introduction of the AMC sheet-like waveguide. Directive radiation patterns with high gain have also been achieved with the proposed AMC waveguide jacket.