The Tapan K. Sarkar Best Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA) Student Paper Award

Jelle Jocqué, Jo Verhaevert, Patrick Van Torre and Hendrik Rogier win the Tapan K. Sarkar Best CAMA Student Paper Award for their conference paper: 'Incorporating Energy Harvesters in Robust Wearable SIW Antennas for Deployment in Protective Clothing' 

Abstract

In the context of smart fabric interactive textile (SFIT) systems, textile antennas play a crucial role. For monitoring of rescue workers, these antennas should be energy efficient, low profile, and able to establish a stable wireless body-centric communication link. To achieve autonomous SFIT systems, it is highly advisable to integrate energy harvesters in the wearable antenna. Therefore, we examine the implications of integrating a kinetic energy harvester within a textile antenna. Furthermore, we explore the consequences of incorporating such an antenna system into protective clothing and analyze its performance when the system is deployed on different parts of the human body. Simulation and measurement results confirm a very stable on-body performance in four distinct deployment scenarios. Lastly, the specific absorption rate of the deployed antenna was found to be well below the limit of both the EU and US standards.

2023 IEEE CAMA

Genoa, Italy, November 15-17, 2023

The IEEE International Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (IEEE CAMA) is an international conference financially sponsored by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (IEEE AP-S) to provide an interdisciplinary forum for sharing experience and discussions about state-of-the-art in the development of antennas and antenna systems with measurements in controlled and non-controlled (in-situ) environments, electromagnetic measurement techniques, scattering and diffraction measurements, near-field and far-field measurements, radar and RCS measurements, simulations and prediction of measurements in realistic configurations, etc. for various applications such as, electromagnetic metrology and compatibility, terrestrial and space-based communications including wireless communications, electronic warfare, UAVs, UAS and drones, microwave, millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter systems, inverse scattering and imaging methods and techniques, computational methods for antenna design, industry, medical and e-health applications.