Antenova Ltd. has released a LTE Antenna Reference Design for Smartphones which covers the global LTE bands. The company’s extremely wideband and efficient antenna design is claimed to overcome the difficulty of covering all the LTE frequency bands without the use of switches or tunable active components, resulting in a lower cost LTE MIMO antenna system for smartphones.
The A10453 is a fixed frequency LTE antenna that covers LTE 700, GSM850, GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900, WCDMA2100, LTE B7 (2500-2690 MHz), LTE B38 (2570-2620 MHz), and LTE B40 (2300 – 2400 MHz) bands.
The A10453 LTE antenna is a low profile 6 mm height internal corner mount antenna, which covers the five cellular bands plus the LTE bands. This extremely wideband and efficient A10453 LTE antenna can be used as a single element for SISO applications or in pairs in a symmetric configuration for a MIMO system. Optimal performance is achieved when two A10453 antennas in a symmetric pair configuration are mounted along the short edge of the PCB in smartphone applications. A USB connector can also be fitted between the two antenna elements without affecting the performance.
“LTE is the fastest developing mobile system technology ever and is on every mobile device makers’ roadmap, however the goal of a truly global LTE smartphone imposes great challenges on the antenna system,” stated Greg McCray, CEO of Antenova.
“While the current majority of LTE user devices operate in the 700 MHz band, which has been heavily driven by the US market, rollout of LTE networks in other regions now require devices to operate in the LTE frequency bands utilized in those markets as well. Antenova has been working with Tier 1 smartphone, tablet and notebook vendors and providing them with patented and novel LTE antenna solutions with both custom antenna designs and antenna reference designs.”
McCray added, “The extremely wide frequency range and MIMO requirements of the LTE specification poses many technical challenges to the antenna design as well as bill of materials (BOM) costs as more active components are normally required to cover all the LTE bands. Antenova has overcome these challenges and can now provide device manufacturers an LTE Antenna Reference Design which provides high efficiency across all LTE bands, a lower BOM cost than active solutions and excellent hand and head performance.”