A Through Wall Doppler Radar System: Active Textile Antenna Design, Prototyping and Experiment

Using garments as a platform for electronic sensing and communication systems opens up a wide range of novel and exciting applications. By carefully tailoring the antenna properties and by adopting a dedicated design strategy, a robust wearable antenna system can be obtained onto which all necessary electronics are integrated. In this contribution, the dedicated design for approach of a low-weight, wearable Doppler radar system fabricated on textile materials is presented. The system, fully integrated into a rescue worker's garment, is capable of detecting moving objects behind a barrier. It relies on an array of four textile transmit antennas to scan the surroundings. At the receiving end, an active wearable receive antenna is deployed to capture the reflected signals. It is demonstrated that the on-body system is capable of detecting moving subjects in indoor environments, including through-wall scenarios.