Design of an all-textile antenna integrated in military beret for GPS/RFID applications

Abstract

In this paper, an all-textile antenna integrated in military beret for global positioning system (GPS) and radio frequency identification (RFID) applications is proposed. The proposed antenna consists of a left handed circular polarization (LHCP) GPS patch antenna and a circular ring patch antenna with conductive threads to operate as RFID in 915 MHz Industrial, science and medical (ISM) band. The circular ring patch with four shorting pins has TM41 higher order resonance mode at 915 MHz for a monopole-like radiation characteristic. Considering the military beret, the antenna is designed by using only textile materials such as conductive textiles, conductive thread, and a felt substrate. The performance comparisons under bending condition and human body (head) effect are conducted.