Stitched Transmission Line for On-Body Communication Systems
Keywords:
On-Body, Wearability, Stitched Transmission Line, Presser Foot, S-parametersAbstract
In this paper we report the use of a stitched transmission line for on body communications. The stitched transmission line was designed as a two wire braided coaxial cable using CST Microwave Studio Suite®. The constructed line is made up of a copper inner conductor surrounded by a polyethylene tubular insulating layer from a stripped RG174 braided coaxial cable. For shielding purpose, the structure is stitched onto a denim material with a conductive thread with the aid of a novel presser foot. To explore its suitability for on-body communications, the stitched transmission line was placed at approximately 5mm from the human body at the left hand side of the chest just below the nipple area and measurements were taken with an Anritsu MS46524A7GHz Vector Network Analyser (VNA) for a frequency range of 0.04 – 4GHz, with measured results demonstrating that the stitched transmission line can be used for on-body communications.
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