Antenova Ltd has revealed its latest antenna, Atta, part number SRFI079, for LTE and smart wireless deployments in the 410 MHz and 450 MHz bands.
The Atta antenna is a flexible printed circuit form and measures 101.0 x 20.0 x 0.15 mm. It is supplied with an I-PEX mating connector for direct integration to a circuit board, and a self-adhesive pad to fix it easily in position. It is therefore easy to integrate into a design.
The LTE 450 spectrum is relatively new, with 65 deployments in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia and LTE 450 is available in 25 of these. This is expected to grow, as spectrum is allocated in more regions.
LTE 450 MHz is used by private network providers in the utilities, public safety and transport sectors. They use it for M2M traffic, smart grids, smart cities, EV charging and rural broadband networks. Europe leads the roll-out with utilities using LTE 450 MHz for critical comms and automated meter reading infrastructure connecting remote areas.
The 450 MHz band compares favourably to 900 MHz for these applications, because at 900 MHz four times as many base stations are needed to cover the same geographical area.
The Atta antenna is ideal to provide connectivity for devices on these networks, in particular meters and rugged smart phones, and hand-held mobile devices using Cat 4 modules.
Michael Castle, product marketing manager at Antenova said, “The 450 MHz frequency allows good antenna propagation and more reliable coverage as well as large coverage for each base station with lower infrastructure costs, and a flexible antenna gives designers a number of options for product design. The antenna can be folded, curved, or placed flat in a design, or tucked inside the housing of a small device. The Atta antenna is available in samples or production quantities, so it is a good choice for OEMs and specialist wireless design projects.”
Atta is the latest addition to Antenova’s product portfolio which includes a selection of tiny, embedded antennas for LTE, 5G and LP-WAN.