A New Class of Reconfigurable Origami Antennas Based on E-Textile Embroidery

We introduce a new class of Origami-based tessellated antennas whose RF characteristics can be self-tuned by reconfiguration of the antenna shape. To enable mechanical flexibility and robustness, the antennas are fabricated using automated embroidery of silver-coated polymer E-threads. As a proof-of-concept, an E-textile accordion-dipole is fabricated, and shown to vary its resonance frequency in the 627 MHz to 991 MHz range. The proposed tessellated, E-textile antennas can be easily integrated into clothing and mechanical structures, providing a non-invasive way of quantifying deformation for a wide range of applications.