The research project M-REWEAR (“Innovative Textile Structures for Mechanical Electromagnetic Reconfigurability of Wearable Antennas”) will study, develop, and evaluate innovative structures for the reconfiguration of wearable textile antennas (WTA). The research will focus on devices for wearable applications within the frequency range 1-8 GHz. The main objective of the proposed research work is the investigation of different mechanically reconfigurable antenna structures for the development of WTA. The capability of achieving reconfiguration by utilizing various textile materials, embroidery techniques with conductive yarns as well as clothing accessories such as zippers, Velcro, and buttons will be examined.
The innovation in our approach lies in the use and exploitation of clothing accessories (e.g. zip, Velcro, Snap-On button etc.) and/or other flexible textile materials (e.g. embroidery patterns with conductive yarns) to achieve antenna reconfigurability, while the user-friendly wearable features are maintained.