One of the factors limiting the integration of electronics and clothes is the availability of flexible components. It is therefore encouraging to see the work on stretch and bendable antenna at North Carolina Uni. By capturing silver nanowires in a polymer they can create micro-strip style antennas that could be unobtrusive in garments. Why is this needed? As a general rule the larger an antenna is, the better it works, and clothes have lots of surface area so we could put lots of useful antenna into them. This is unlike the antennas in a smartphone which are comprised by the small space available, not to mention the electromagnetic pollution from other electronic components being nearby. Antenna’s in jackets could therefore give us phone reception where we previously had none!
Peter Massey et.al. at Philips research demonstrated fabric antennas back in 2002 – see slide 10, at that time using copper coat fabric. These were a little bulk compared to those currently proposed by NC uni.
Source: Electronic news