Fully Textile-Based Multifunctional System Incorporating Near/Far-Field SWIPT for Wearable Applications

This article introduces a novel, compact, fully textile-based multifunctional system that, for the first time, simultaneously achieves near- and far-field (NFF) communication and wireless power transfer (WPT) capabilities within a truly wearable platform. The proposed hybrid system covers the three most widely used frequency bands and supports multiple functionalities simultaneously. The near-field communication (NFC) and energy-harvesting functions are realized by a coil antenna operating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz; the body-centric communication function is achieved by an antenna that operates at 2.45 GHz and adopts omnidirectional radiation mode; and the power transfer function is implemented by an antenna operating at 5.8 GHz with directional radiation mode and a rectifier circuit. In virtue of the shared-aperture design, the entire system features simplicity, compactness, and low profile, making it more suitable for integration on all-textile substrates. Measurement results show that the body-centric communication operates in the frequency band of 2.43–2.53 GHz, and the power transfer covers the frequency band of 5.72–5.96 GHz. The interband isolation between the two antennas is better than −30 and −25 dB, respectively, thus ensuring minimal interference between system functions and reliable multimode operation. The rectifier achieves a maximum conversion efficiency of 70%. In addition, the NFC and energy-harvesting modules support data exchange (reading and writing) and can deliver an output voltage of 1.4 V when used with existing commercial smartphones, which demonstrates the remarkable communication and energy-harvesting capabilities. Finally, the proposed design was experimentally evaluated under practical wearable conditions. These results demonstrate that the system can simultaneously perform its intended functionalities while maintaining excellent compatibility with IoT platforms.