Mechanical and thermal tests of textile antennas for load bearing applications

In this paper we assess the mechanical and thermal performance of a load-bearing spiral antenna fabricated using conductive textile threads (E-threads). This textile spiral exhibits a neariy 10:1 bandwidth (0.3-3GHz) with circularly polarized gain of 6dBi across the 1-3GHz band. Such performance is unique for textiles and flexible surfaces. Mechanical tests for the spiral showed no appreciable changes in performance, even after 300 flexing cycles. Thermal tests were also performed at +90°C and -85°C. Again, the performance of the textile spiral remained almost unchanged. Overall, the proposed spiral exhibits excellent mechanical and thermal robustness. As such, it is attractive for several wideband, conformal, and load-bearing applications, even under extreme weather conditions (e.g., vehicular and airborne).