Antenova broadens LTE frontiers 
Antenova, the Cambridge UK integrated antenna and RF solutions company, has launched an LTE antenna reference design for smartphones which covers the global LTE bands.
CEO Greg McCray said Antenova’s “wideband and efficient” antenna design overcomes the difficulty of covering all the LTE frequency bands without the use of switches or tunable active components.This results in a significantly lower cost LTE MIMO (Multiple-In-Multiple-Out) antenna system for smartphones.
McCray said: “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.
“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 utilised 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.”
The new 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.
According to the company, when utilised in Antenova’s MIMO configuration, the antenna system provides:-
• Total efficiencies of more than 50 per cent over all bands with an average efficiency over all bands of 61 per cent
• Isolation between two antenna elements below -10dB over all bands
• Return loss better than 6dB over all frequency bands and better than 10dB on LTE B7
• Superior hand and head performance
McCray said the A10453 could be realised using flexi or LDS on a plastic carrier and customised to fit specific mechanical IDs.
He 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.”
