title: Smart Coat with a Fully-Embedded Textile Antenna for IoT Applications.
abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) scenario is strongly related with the advance of the development of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. Additionally, in the WSN context, for a continuous feed, the integration of textile antennas for energy harvesting into smart clothing is a particularly interesting solution when the replacement of batteries is not easy to practice, such as in wearable devices. This paper presents the E-Caption: Smart and Sustainable Coat. It has an embedded dual-band textile antenna for electromagnetic energy harvesting, operating at global system for mobile communication (GSM) 900 and digital cellular system (DCS) 1800 bands. This printed antenna is fully integrated, as its dielectric is the textile material composing the coat itself. The E-Caption illustrates the innovative concept of textile antennas that can be manipulated as simple emblems. Seven prototypes of these "emblem" antennas, manufactured by lamination and embroidering techniques are also presented. It is shown that the orientation of the conductive fabric does not influence the performance of the antenna. It is also shown that the direction and number of the stitches in the embroidery may influence the performance of the antenna. Moreover, the comparison of results obtained before and after the integration of the antenna into cloth shows the integration does not affect the behavior of the antenna.
authors.affiliation: FibEnTech Research Unit, Universidade da Beira Interior, Rua Marqu&#234;s D'&#193;vila e Bolama, Covilh&#227; 6201-001, Portugal. carol@ubi.pt.|Instituto de Telecomunica&#231;&#245;es, Campus Universit&#225;rio de Santiago, Aveiro 3810-135, Portugal. carol@ubi.pt.|Capes Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, Bras&#237;lia 70040-020, Brazil. carol@ubi.pt.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loss
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Telecomunica&#231;&#245;es, Campus Universit&#225;rio de Santiago, Aveiro 3810-135, Portugal. rgoncalves@av.it.pt.|Departamento de Eletr&#243;nica, Telecomunica&#231;&#245;es e Inform&#225;tica, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universit&#225;rio de Santiago, Aveiro 3810-135, Portugal. rgoncalves@av.it.pt.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: FibEnTech Research Unit, Universidade da Beira Interior, Rua Marqu&#234;s D'&#193;vila e Bolama, Covilh&#227; 6201-001, Portugal. catarina.lopes@ubi.pt.|Instituto de Telecomunica&#231;&#245;es, Campus Universit&#225;rio de Santiago, Aveiro 3810-135, Portugal. catarina.lopes@ubi.pt.
authors.forename: Catarina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Telecomunica&#231;&#245;es, Campus Universit&#225;rio de Santiago, Aveiro 3810-135, Portugal. ppinho@deetc.isel.pt.|Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Rua Conselheiro Em&#237;lio Navarro, Lisboa 1959-009, Portugal. ppinho@deetc.isel.pt.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pinho
authors.affiliation: FibEnTech Research Unit, Universidade da Beira Interior, Rua Marqu&#234;s D'&#193;vila e Bolama, Covilh&#227; 6201-001, Portugal. lrbss@ubi.pt.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Salvado
keywords: energy harvesting; smart clothing; textile antenna; wearable devices