e-Textile Embroidered Wearable Near-Field Communication RFID Antennas

Wearable e-textile near-field communication (NFC) radio-frequency identification (RFID) antennas fully integrated with garments using embroidery techniques, which enables everyday clothing to become connective to wireless communication systems, is presented. The e-textile wearable antennas have been designed through full electromagnetic wave simulation based on the electrical properties of conductive threads and textile substrates at the high frequency band, allocated for NFC wireless communications. The e-textile wearable NFC antenna performance under mechanical bending as well as human body effects have been experimentally studied and evaluated; the antennas can operate under significantly bending angle and body effects attributed to its broad operating bandwidth. This is highly desirable and distinguished to conventional NFC antennas; the proposed e-textile wearable NFC antennas can be placed almost any place on clothes and still capable to communicate at the desired operating frequency of 13.56 MHz. The maximum read range of the e-textile wearable NFC tags is measured to be around 5.6 cm, being compatible to typical commercially available metallic NFC tags. The e-textile wearable NFC tags can lead to numerous potential applications such as information exchange, personal security, health monitoring and Internet of Things.