Study on Different Feeding Techniques of Textile Microstrip Patch Antenna
Jayathunga E.H. , De Silva D.S., Amunugama C.S.B.M.R.N.L.K., Helapita L. and Nagahawaththa T.H
Microstrip patch antenna is a suitable candidate for wearable textile antenna as it is a flexible, planer and directional antenna. In this antenna, the radiating patch is placed on top of the dielectric substrate and the ground plane is placed on the other side of the substrate. There should be a feed line to the patch in order to transfer the power from the source to the antenna. Mainly, feeding techniques are categorized into contacting and non-contacting methods. In this study, three different contacting feeding techniques (line feed, inset feed and coaxial feed [4]) are considered to comparatively analyze their effect and towards the antenna performance by means of S11 parameter, bandwidth, return loss and Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR)
Key Words: Bandwidth; Feeding Method; Microstrip Patch Antenna; S Parameters; Textile Antenna
Overview
Microstrip patch antennas are popular in present communication-field applications due to their thin, flexible and lightweight structure [3]. These antennas are used in applications like Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, mobile phones, etc. When it comes to textile microstrip patch antenna, a textile material is used as the substrate of the antenna instead of conventional dielectric materials. Polyester (100%) fabric is used for this study and the most important parameter; dielectric constant was measured several times and an average value was taken for design calculation. In line feeding there is a feeding line and signal transmitted via that line. In inset feeding there are two conductor cuts behind both side of the feed line. In coaxial feeding, coaxial cable is connected to patch instead of feed line. Originality of this work is, comparison of three feedings on textile materials
