In Silico Design and Analysis of E-Textiles for Hospital Laundry: Enhancing Tracking with Chipless RFID Tags

Year 2024, Volume: 34 Issue: 2, 162 - 174, 30.06.2024

Müjgan Naycı Duman , İsmail Usta , Gökhan Bora Esmer

https://doi.org/10.32710/tekstilvekonfeksiyon.1329788

Abstract

In the textile industry, passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tag integration is increasing from warehouse tracking to production follow-up and healthcare applications. For instance, laundry management in hospitals is a complicated and massive system that should work without errors for patient safety. The importance of the proposed work is majorly on introducing the in silico design of a 30x30 mm2 textile-based chipless RFID (CRFID) tag with circular transmission lines using a conductive yarn for item identification using the CST Microwave Studio application. The tag antenna is designed with stainless steel/polyester twisted yarn integrated into the polypropylene tag fabric using the embroidery technique. The antenna is tested for its readability of the embedded code in the simulations with a range of 0-20 GHz frequency band, and its Radar Cross Section (RCS) responses, return losses (S1,1), E-field, H-field, and Farfield performances are obtained. As a result of these, 9 bits code capacity and 1-bit/cm2 code density are achieved. The UHF antenna design simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of using textile-based materials to create a CRFID tag that is lightweight, durable, and cost-effective. The tag can store and transmit data without a chip, making it ideal for healthcare applications. This research contributes to the advancement of CRFID technology and provides a practical solution for laundry applications. The washable and durable circular textile-based CRFID tag helps to track and monitor laundry data consistently and can improve the healthcare laundry industry. Furthermore, it can be used in various textile applications for tracking, asset management, and wearable and washable textiles.

Keywords

RFID, Chipless RFID, passive tags, embroidery, conductive yarn, circular transmission lines, RFID antenna, hospital textiles, wearable

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