Antennas are ubiquitous in every communication network. Whether it’s a smartphone, wearable, electronic warfare system, or smart agriculture innovation, every connected device needs an antenna. As technology advances, devices are becoming smaller and more complex, making antenna integration increasingly challenging. With the global RF antennas market projected to reach $6.4 billion by 2034, the demand for reliable communication solutions has never been higher. Ensuring your device is engineered with an ideal antenna solution is more critical than ever.
Why Expert Design Matters
Modern Challenges of Optimizing Antenna Performance
Antenna performance directly influences the efficiency and reach of RF communication. A poorly designed antenna can lead to significant issues, including lower propagation range, signal loss, and device malfunctions. These types of performance issues are especially critical for low-power devices, such as battery-powered IoT products, where energy efficiency is paramount.
Key Performance Factors to Consider:
- Frequency Range and Bandwidth: Ensuring antennas function effectively across the desired frequency spectrum.
- Size and Form Factor: Adapting to increasingly compact designs without sacrificing performance.
- Impedance Matching: Achieving optimal power transfer and minimizing reflection losses.
- Radiation Patterns and Efficiency: Facilitating effective signal propagation and minimal energy loss.
- Environmental Considerations: Accounting for factors such as temperature, humidity, and surrounding materials.
- Compliance and Integration: Meeting regulatory standards and ensuring seamless integration with other device components.
The Demand for Smaller, Smarter Antenna Solutions
The growing interconnectivity of devices can be seen in everyday consumer products, from robot vacuum cleaners to home heating systems, alarms, and even interactive toys and games. In the wider environment, wireless communication protocols for industrial applications such as asset tracking, remote monitoring in healthcare, agriculture and civil infrastructure, are proliferating the need to communicate to “everything everywhere”.
The most basic application use cases may rely on the ability to operate with multiple communication protocols – including NFC, Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE), Wi-Fi, LoRa®, and ultra-wideband (UWB). Device antennas must support multiple frequency bands from as low as 10MHz to as high as 9GHz in a single device and in ever-decreasing form factors.
The demand for miniaturization inherently leads to efficiency loss. As resonant antennas shrink, standing waves are generated, and loss resistance increases relative to radiation resistance. This leads to greater losses and reduced efficiency. Smaller antennas also face significant challenges with impedance matching (Figure 1), often resulting in limited bandwidth.
Leading Innovators in Antenna Design
Expert antenna design services are stepping up to meet these demands by providing custom solutions that navigate the complexities of multi-protocol, multi-frequency operation. By combining cutting-edge technology with specialized knowledge, companies like Quarterwave are ensuring that antenna innovations are seamlessly integrated across all industries.
Applications in Key Industries
Medical Devices
Wearable health trackers and remote monitoring devices must be small, lightweight, and discreet while ensuring real-time data transmission from various body positions. For cellular technologies like NB-IoT and LTE-M, Quarterwave has developed antenna solutions for devices as small as 40 mm x 45 mm without compromising performance. Proprietary designs have achieved efficiencies exceeding 30% (Figure 2), ensuring that even the most compact medical devices can communicate reliably.
Smart Farming
Traditional technologies often struggle to meet the demands of real-time agricultural monitoring and control, especially in remote or large-scale environments. Utilizing protocols like GNSS, LTE, Wi-Fi, BLE, and UWB, Quarterwave has designed multiband solutions that enable precise positioning and real-time data transmission, even in challenging environments like densely planted fields or shielded greenhouses. Their crop monitoring and livestock tracking solutions provide farmers with reliable data, enabling them to optimize operations and improve resource management.
Smart Metering
Smart meters face significant interference challenges due to metallic enclosures and surrounding high-current, high-voltage electronics. Quarterwave is at the forefront of developing innovative antenna solutions to optimize performance in these demanding environments:
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- Slot Antennas: By creating a ‘window’ in the enclosure, these antennas enable efficient transmission (Figure 3) while minimizing interference.
- External Antennas: Although less practical and aesthetically pleasing, external antennas offer a straightforward solution to bypass metal enclosures when functionality is the primary concern.
- Integrated Antennas: Hybrid enclosures improve radiation efficiency, although they require extensive testing to ensure performance across various positions.
- Ferrite Layer: These allow antennas to be positioned close to metal enclosures without interference (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Quarterwave ferrite antenna solution prevents efficiency loss. Source: Quarterwave
Quarterwave has successfully implemented multiple smart metering solutions that utilize slot-integrated antennas and ferrite layer options.
Expert Antenna Design Services Available through RFMW
Antenna design is often one of the final considerations for system designers. With the growing use of numerous communication protocol standards in both industrial and consumer applications, RF considerations frequently surface late in the design process. This delay can lead to suboptimal solutions, particularly in low-power radio applications where battery life is critical. Poor antenna designs with low efficiency and gain can result in excessive power consumption.
By leveraging specialized antenna expertise and a deep understanding of environmental factors, companies can develop optimized solutions and accelerate their time to market.
Drawing over four decades of combined RF expertise, more than 50 patents, and over 100 custom antenna designs developed by its founders, Quarterwave is a trailblazer in next-gen connectivity. Quarterwave’s partnership with RFMW ensures that customers have a comprehensive antenna design services resource to meet the needs of modern RF applications. Quarterwave specializes in:
- Antenna Design: Creating innovative, high-performance antennas tailored to your specific application needs.
- Prototyping: Rapidly develop and evaluating functional models of your antenna and RF solutions
- EMC/EMI testing: Evaluating products to minimize interference and enhance performance. Identifying potential issues early in the development process ensures compliance with regulatory standards.
- Simulation: Providing predictive modeling for antenna performance and overall RF behavior
- Measurement: Utilizing advanced measurement techniques and equipment to provide detailed insights into your product’s functionality
As the world becomes more interconnected and the demand for smaller, smarter, and more efficient devices grows, expert antenna design is no longer optional—it’s essential. With the right antenna solutions, you can ensure that your device performs optimally, integrates seamlessly into complex systems, and stands out in an increasingly competitive market.
About Colin Field
Colin Field is an RFMW Supplier Business Manager responsible for passive components with a particular focus on RF Filters and antenna solutions. Beginning his career in 1984, Colin has a passion for physics which has led to a lifelong interest in materials technology, properties and the potential uses and applications of those materials.
