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Antenna Total Solutions model reduces custom antenna design time

Custom antennas demand expertise in materials science, manufacturing processes and RF simulation. Yageo’s Antenna Total Solutions model can reduce timescales for antenna design and prototyping. Antennas can be manufactured from ferrite, ceramic or co-fired materials as well as from base metals. Low-frequency applications, such as 13.56MHz RFID use FR4 and ferrite. Higher-frequency applications, such as 2.4GHz Bluetooth and WLAN or ultra-wide band products operating in the 3.1GHz to 10.6GHz frequency range can benefit from the low-loss characteristics of ceramic materials. A number of manufacturing technologies are used in antenna production. The LTCC (low-temperature co-fired ceramics) process can be used to sinter materials with high conductivity into a ceramic to minimise radio frequency signal losses. The introduction of new processes allows integration of passive components such as miniaturised resistors, coupler capacitors, embedded inductors and filters into the custom antenna modules.

Once the material and the manufacturing process have been selected, the performance of the intended design can be simulated. Maxwell differential equations produce accurate measurements in a three-dimensional radiation pattern. This simulation uses MOM (method of moment), FDTD (finite-differential time-domain) or FEM (finite element method) algorithms to calculate S parameters, bandwidth, isolation and antenna characteristics. Further analysis can evaluate the antenna’s surface current as well as far-field performance such as antenna pattern, efficiency and gain values. What-if scenarios can explore material changes, manufacturing process optimisation and special environmental protection such as metal shielding or human body effects. An in-house anechoic chamber is used to measure the performance of the design across a range of parameters. The chamber can measure passive, antenna gain or radiation efficiency and active TRP/TIS (total radiated power/total isotropic sensitivity) as well as estimate the (EMI) electromagnetic interference in the application. The Antenna Total Solutions model allows fast-tracking of custom ceramic and metal antennas from concept to prototype.