Near-field-enabled Clothing for Wearable Wireless Power Transfer

Multiple sensors placed around the body can acquire important physiological data for applications in clinical diagnostics, athletics, and human-machine interfaces, but long-term powering of such a distributed network of sensors is a major technological challenge. Clothing embroidered with conductive inductor traces, termed near-field-enabled clothing, have recently been proposed for establishing network connectivity around the body by transferring power from a central hub (such as a smartphone) to multiple battery-free sensors. Here, we present a design procedure to optimize power transfer efficiency of such near-field-enabled clothing using both electromagnetic field simulation and equivalent circuit analysis. We describe the selection of appropriate parameters for optimization, and present an equivalent circuit model that provides design insights on the optimal parameters for wireless power transfer.