Characterizations of Flexible Wearable Antenna based on Rubber Substrate

Abstract

Modern ages have observed excessive attention from both scientific and academic communities in the field of flexible electronic based systems. Most progressive flexible electronic systems require incorporating the flexible rubber substrate antenna operating in explicit bands to offer wireless connectivity which is extremely required by today’s network concerned society. This paper characterizes flexible antenna performance under the environments developed by natural rubber as the substrate. Flexible antenna grounded on rubber substrate was simulated using CST microwave studio with diverse permittivity and loss tangent. In our work, prototype antennas were built using natural rubber with different carbon filler substances. This paper reveals advanced flexible substrate effects on antenna quality factor (Q) and its consequences on bandwidth and gain. Such antennas under bending washing environment were also found to perform better than existing designs, showing less change in their gain, frequency shift and impedance mismatch.