Textile-Based Stretchable Antenna for Wearable Communication Applications

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and testing of a loop antenna integrated into a commercially available T-shirt for wearable wireless communication applications. The antenna is embedded using a stretchable conductive ink printed on a Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) substrate, enabling seamless integration with textiles while maintaining flexibility and durability under mechanical deformation, such as stretching. The study explores the antenna's electromagnetic characteristics, including <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$S_{11}$</tex>, gain, efficiency, and the antenna under mechanical stretching. The results indicate that the proposed stretchable loop antenna offers a promising solution for wearable technology applications, particularly in health monitoring, sports, and smart clothing.