Most fifth-generation (5G) mobile network applications require wearable antennas to be unobtrusive, low-profile, low-power and electrically small. Such antennas are a crucial element in wearable body-centric wireless system designs for delivering 5G user’s experience. Wearable antennas can be employed in a wide range of applications from communicating, harvesting energy to sensing capabilities. For this purpose, fabrics and novel materials such as graphene are been explored in order to cope with the wearable device demands in terms of flexibility, conformability and lightweight. Similarly, novel fabrication techniques for wearable antenna prototyping such as screen printing, inkjet printing, embroidery and cutters are been investigated to exploit the unique characteristics of various materials.

These innovative fabrication methods allow a high degree of fabrication precision enabling their uptake for 5G applications. Due to power absorption by lossy human body tissues, a distorted radiation pattern and lower radiation efficiency are envisaged when they are worn on and at proximity to the body. Furthermore, when designing the antenna, the body proximity effects must be considered to prevent significant antenna detuning and the consequent mismatch. Numerical and experimental human body phantoms are used with a view to simulate its impact.

This chapter presents an analysis of novel fabrication methods for wearable antennas, methodologies and measurement techniques to characterise their performance in a dynamic body-worn communication environment. This chapter delivers a review of different novel fabrication techniques for wearable antennas such as various printing processes, machine embroidery and laser methods. Follow by a metrology section, where numerical and experimental human phantoms are explained and durability tests described. Three examples of 5G wearable antennas for different frequencies and their on-body performance characterisation are provided.Finally, it is closed with a summary of the outcomes achieved in this chapter and future prospects of the research.