Feasibility Study of PDMS Embedded Transparent Conductive Fabric for the Realization of Transparent Flexible Antennas

In this paper the suitability and effectiveness of transparent conductive fabric for design and realization of transparent wearable antennas is studied. In contrast to the other expensive and non-flexible transparent conducting materials, transparent conductive fabric is an effective alternative for the realization of flexible transparent antennas. When embedded in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) this fabric becomes mechanically robust against repeated bending which is a requirement for many wearable devices. The performance of the transparent conductive fabric embedded in PDMS is evaluated for the wearable antenna application by fabricating a simple patch antenna operating at 2.45 GHz and testing its performance. The antenna prototype has been fabricated by using transparent conductive fabric VeilShield to form the conducting parts including the radiating element and PDMS as the substrate and encapsulation. Experimental investigations of the antenna demonstrate the applicability of the proposed material for the realization of transparent wearable antenna through a simple and inexpensive fabrication process.