Antenna overload in personal communication devices
Nick Jones at the Gartner blog brought up a very important issue regarding miniaturization of communication devices: How do we deal with the antenna overload?
Typical dual-mode 3G phones have at least these antennae:
- 3G antennas for 850, 1900 and 2100 MHz to support tri-band 3G
- 1800 and 900 MHz for the other two 2G frequencies
- 2.4 GHz - one antenna for Bluetooth/WiFi - multiple once 802.11n is adopted
Its only gonna get worse once we add WiMAX, Wireless USB (Ultra Wide Band), etc.
Communications Innovations - Antenna Overload
So, where are they all going to go? As mobile gadgets get smaller because of greater chip integration, the problem just gets worse. Furthermore, antenna positioning forces some unpleasant design compromises. For example, if you put the antennae around the edge of a laptop screen, you can't have a continuous metal frame around the screen, so your laptop becomes less robust. So, although it may not be immediately obvious, the number and size of antennae required by future mobile devices may thwart designers' ability to use new technology such as more-integrated electronics and flexible screens to make gadgets even smaller.
This presents us with an incredible challenge: implement truly re-configurable circuits (software defined radios - SDRs) and tunable antennae for handsets.
One company known to be working with SDRs for base stations is Vanu.
Technorati Tags: sdr, antenna, wifi, bluetooth, 3G, wimax
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