Wearable aperture-coupled shorted solar patch antenna for remote tracking and monitoring applications

This paper presents the design and characterization of a compact wearable aperture-coupled shorted patch antenna combined with flexible solar cells covering the 902-928 MHz ISM band. The antenna is constructed solely out of flexible foam and textile materials. The parallel connected amorphous silicon (a:Si-H) solar cells are able to deliver a maximum DC power output of about 96 mW. Combining solar cells with a shorted patch antenna allows a simple realization of the DC output wire connections without disturbing the antenna's radiation characteristics. A measured on-body antenna gain and bandwidth of about 1.6 dBi and 63 MHz are realized, respectively.