Long Term Antenna Evolution?
Date: 1/9/2011
Although mobile phone antennas aren't visible, they are a critical component to ensure the reliability and performance of mobile data transmission.
Meeting today's mobile consumer expectations of high data rates, high voice quality and comprehensive network coverage are reliant on the capabilities of the smart phone or tablet antenna.
In the latest mobile device design, screens and batteries are typically allocated the most space, with antennas squeezed in to any remaining space envelope.
This often means that the antenna is badly located in terms of performance and has to be constantly reduced in size.
The introduction of LTE highlights the difficulties:
- LTE currently uses 2 antennas, to cover more than 40 possible bands
- An LTE antenna needs to be backward compatible, supporting 2G or 3G fallback
- The antenna needs to cover Wi-Fi to reduce the burden on 3G or 4G networks
- A GPS antenna is also required
Current passive technology will not cover all the bands and deliver faster and greater network capacity.
Active antenna devices could meet these needs. Active antenna devices are where the antenna systems interact with the rest of the RF system. The use of active antenna and RF systems could mean smaller devices whilst providing consistently reliable, high performance meeting the mobile consumer's expectations.
