Shorting Strategies for Wearable Textile Antennas: A review of four shorting methods

Shorting vias are standard components in planar technologies, but their implementation is not straightforward in wearable textile electronics technologies. In this article, four different shorting strategies for wearable flexible textile antennas, namely those based on embroidered metalized wires, folded strips of metalized fabric, eyelets, and snap-on buttons, are investigated. These shorting methods are applied to design different selected antenna structures, specifically two variations of a quarter-wavelength patch antenna and a monopolar patch antenna with edge shortings. The simulated and experimental results demonstrate how these four shorting strategies can be effectively used in flexible wearable textile antenna designs. Each method exhibits different strengths and weaknesses in terms of complexity, efficiency, mechanical stability, and modularity. The analysis aims at guiding designers in the selection of the most appropriate shorting method for their specific application, considering the efficiency of the folded strips, the fabrication simplicity of the eyelets, the mechanical stability of the embroidered vias, and the modularity of the snap-on buttons.