HomeProductsProducts Details

Solution to dynamically change the M2M antenna band “on the fly”

Date: 15/05/2013
Taoglas USA has teamed up with Peregrine Semiconductor to bring a dynamically tunable LTE antenna solution to the M2M market. The combined solution has surface-mount ceramic PIFA antenna from Taoglas (Warrior PA.710.A) and Peregrine’s PE64102 DuNE Digitally Tunable Capacitor (DTC) on one evaluation board. The advantages include availability of wide bandwidths for this type of antenna and the ability to dynamically change the antenna band “on the fly” to match the cellular band a radio module is using.

“This system will benefit our customers because it means they can achieve very high performance and throughput on those challenging lower frequencies such as 700 MHz, without dramatically increasing the size of the antenna,” said Ruben Cuadras, engineering manager with Taoglas USA. “Our Digitally Tunable Antenna (DTA)—the Warrior PA.710.A—helps customers reduce the size of their product and enables them to 're-tune’ an antenna whenever it is impacted by items such as a battery, enclosure or LCD. The antenna frequency can adjust for each specific location in cases such as when driving a car across multiple locations, or when a device moves between different countries. Teaming up with a top-tier company such as Peregrine means that, together, we can help our clients globally prepare their devices for LTE.”

“Today’s wireless devices must now support a subset of more than 40 frequency bands, worldwide. M2M devices, in particular, must adapt ‘in the field,’ in order to connect to the strongest signal,” said Mark Schrepferman, director of the communications and industrial product line for Peregrine’s High-Performance Solutions business unit. “By dynamically tuning the antenna with DuNE DTCs, the system can support multiple bands while providing optimal RF performance. We are pleased to work with Taoglas to bring this cost-effective solution to the M2M market.”
The evaluation board will be available directly from Taoglas and online in the coming months through its distributors. The Warrior PA.710.A wide-band antenna covers all working frequencies in the 3G/4G cellular space but will require a certain ground plane size. More information about Peregrine’s DuNE tuning products is available at http://www.psemi.com/content/design-solutions/rf-tuning.php.