3-Dimensional Wearable Patch Antennas with Improved Bandwidth and Efficiency for Athlete, Patient, Firefighter and Soldier Applications

我们生活在一个无线世界，我们需要随时随地进行通信的能力。只有用能够在空中可靠地传输信号的天线来取代电线，才能达到这种程度的便利性。为了继续满足这种对无线、离散和强大的通信系统的需求，设计师和商业先驱们正在构思将天线集成到服装中的新应用。这些概念对某些对通信系统有特殊要求的群体特别有益，包括紧急服务、军事、精英运动员、患者和时尚创新者。实现这些概念将扩大一个令人兴奋的新制造业，将创新的纺织品和先进的电子制造联系在一起。这项研究具有改变现代通信的潜力。集成到衣服中的通信设备将是轻便、立即可用、易于使用、坚固耐用且不会被遗弃的设备。在安全关键场景中，如搜救或战场情况，主角之间通信中断的风险降低，定位处于危险中的人的能力大大提高。在不那么紧迫的情况下，例如痴呆症患者的长期护理，可以使用集成天线来跟踪患者，以防他们离开自己安全的家庭环境。同样，心脏病等慢性病患者可以在他们的家庭环境中佩戴传输监测设备，向他们的监督医生通报他们正在进行的情况。目前，可穿戴天线在主流市场上并不常见，原因是担心用户舒适性、天线效率、天线接近人体时的失谐以及人体吸收电磁能量的风险。该项目通过减小天线体积或改善带宽和/或通信范围来解决这些问题，并将使织物天线的实际集成成为可行的商业现实。通常，减小天线尺寸会损害电磁性能(范围和带宽)。这也适用于减小平面天线高度的情况。按照惯例，贴片天线是平面的；然而，天线下面的电场并不均匀。这个项目的假设是，在某些位置增加天线的高度将特别有利于天线的性能。因此，可以设计优化的3-D天线来最大化带宽和效率与体积比。这项研究项目将使用优化的三维结构和高性能材料来改善可穿戴天线的电磁性能。一个由商业项目合作伙伴组成的强大联盟确保了这项工作从一开始就对英国制造业产生了影响，并确保可以实现对军事、体育和卫生部门的好处。拉夫堡大学是英国两个领先的天线和电磁学小组的所在地，在体育和体育技术方面享有卓越的国际声誉。惠特托博士在天线设计和与人体的电磁相互作用方面拥有十多年的经验，他将管理这个21个月的项目。

We live in a wireless world where we demand the ability to communicate wherever we are. This level of convenience can only be achieved by replacing wires with antennas capable of reliably transmitting signals through the air. To continue to meet this demand for wireless, discrete and robust communication systems, designers and commercial pioneers are conceptualising new applications that will integrate antennas into clothing. These concepts are of particular benefit for certain groups who have specific requirements for communication systems including the emergency services, military, elite athletes, patients and fashion innovators. Realising these concepts will expand an exciting new manufacturing sector tying together innovative textiles and advanced electronics manufacturing.This research has the potential to transform modern communications. Communication devices that are integrated into clothing will be light, immediately accessible, easy to use, robust and impossible to leave behind. In safety critical scenarios, such as search and rescue or battlefield situations, the risk of communication breakdown between protagonists is reduced and the ability to locate people at risk is greatly increased. In less immediately critical scenarios, such as long term care of dementia patients, integrated antennas can be used to track patients should they wander away from the safety of their own home environments. Similarly, sufferers of chronic diseases such as heart disease could conceivably wear transmitting monitoring devices in their home environments to apprise their supervising physicians of their ongoing condition. Currently, wearable antennas are not commonly found in mainstream markets due to concerns around user comfort; antenna efficiency; the antenna detuning when in proximity to the human body and risks around the absorption of electromagnetic energy into the body. This project addresses these concerns by reducing antenna volume or improving the bandwidth and/or the communication range and will lead towards making the practical integration of fabric antennas a viable commercial reality.Typically, reducing antenna size can compromise electromagnetic performance (range and bandwidth). This also applies when reducing the height of planar antennas. Convention has decreed that patch antennas are planar; however, the electric fields underneath an antenna are not uniform. The hypothesis of this project is that increasing the height of the antenna in certain locations will particularly benefit antenna performance. Therefore, an optimised 3-D antenna can be designed to maximise the bandwidth and efficiency to volume ratio. This research project will improve the electromagnetic performance of wearable antennas using optimised 3-D structures in conjunction with high performance materials. A strong consortium of commercial Project Partners ensures the work has impact for UK manufacturing from the outset and that the benefits to the military, sporting and health sectors can be realised.Loughborough University is home to two of the UK's leading groups in antennas and electromagnetics and enjoys an international reputation for excellence in sports and sports technology. Dr. Whittow, who has more than ten years of experience in antenna design and electromagnetic interactions with the human body, will manage this 21 month project.