Pulsaart by AGC, a premier developer of on-glass antenna technology, end-to-end antenna system supplier, and automotive measurement service provider, has worked with Microwave Vision Group (MVG) to install antenna test chambers at its facility in Charleroi, Belgium. Adding RF and antenna testing in-house has enabled them to speed up testing, innovate faster, and expand their services to provide connectivity measurement services to select clients. MVG has installed 3 different antenna test systems and anechoic chambers at their facility.
Pulsaart Tackles Emerging Automotive Antenna Test Challenges and Beyond
Pulsaart is a startup that spun off from AGC in 2021 with the goal of developing on-glass antennas for the European automotive market. AGC’s on-glass antenna origins may have begun with broadcast antennas, but AGC has been developing automotive on-glass antennas for decades. Their legacy of innovation with on-glass antennas kickstarted Pulsaart’s success in the European market. In just a few short years, Pulsaart has expanded from on-glass automotive antenna systems to wider developments like those improving wireless connectivity for the rail industry. They have, in the meantime, also grown to offer full-scale connectivity test and measurements for automotive, telecom, aerospace applications, and more.
In the early years, while the antenna team was focused on on-glass automotive antennas, they quickly learned that developing a quality antenna product for automotive applications required physical testing to properly tune and refine the design. The frequencies in which automotive antennas operate result in complex interactions with the metal car bodies and other features of the automotive platform (i.e. wiring, other wireless systems, etc). “At those frequencies, the antenna is not just the wires on the glass, but also the entire car,” shared Arthur Romeijer, measurement expert at Pulsaart, “It is very tricky to accurately simulate all of the interactions, as you don’t typically include all of the parts of the car or the simulation becomes too complex.” It is often necessary for antenna designers to simplify the simulation, which results in sacrificing accuracy for practical simulation times and complexity. Simulating these interactions accurately is therefore challenging and often impractical, calling for physical testing to ensure optimal antenna performance. This physical testing is vital not only for automotive antennas but for all complex systems.
Pulsaart Brings Antenna and RF Tests In House
With the desire to grow the antenna team and the influx of more projects in Europe, there was a clear need for Pulsaart to have test chamber facilities in-house. In 2019, Pulsaart purchased several MVG test chambers, including a customized single-probe spherical test system used particularly for automotive broadcast antenna tuning, and which was specially designed to test down to 64 MHz to accommodate Japanese radio frequencies. In the lot was also a Starlab multi-probe spherical near-field system to cover frequencies from 650 MHz to 18 GHz. This system is being used for internal fast prototyping, advanced research projects, component-level tests, and for external customer testing services. Pulsaart’s third anechoic chamber houses another multi-probe system by MVG, the SG 3000, which has been validated to operate well down to 50 MHz and up to 6 GHz. This system has been serving them well for testing antenna systems at the component or full-scale vehicle levels both for internal development and external customer measurement services.
“In Europe, we initially didn’t have an antenna chamber available, and the team would have to travel abroad to perform testing at external test sites, which was expensive,” concluded Romeijer, “Building the chambers brought a lot of good things and has allowed us to drastically reduce the time needed to perform antenna tuning.” Without having to travel abroad and plan projects remotely, the team’s time management significantly improved, realizing reduced cost and development times.
“The anechoic chambers and state-of-the-art test systems were built to enhance productivity,” declared Romeijer, “With the test chambers on site and everyone working together, we are able to provide a better service for our customers, and propose better solutions quickly and accurately.”
The Pulsaart team had a variety of antenna test chambers to choose from but decided on MVG for several reasons. “MVG is quite well known for their innovative spirit, and providing customized test solutions,” shared Romeijer, “The key differentiator was the strong benefits of measurement speed and accuracy that come with the MVG multi-probe systems.”
The Pulsaart team also appreciates the host of software options that work as a turn-key solution with MVG’s test chambers. The software suite’s specific features have enabled Pulsaart to expand its business activities beyond internal testing and offer sophisticated testing reports to many satisfied customers.
The Legacy of Choosing MVG for Pulsaart
With a much faster development cycle enabled by the rapid testing capability with in-house MVG test chambers, Pulsaart has been meeting customer needs at a dramatically faster pace. “Our classic antenna development tuning phase used to take a certain amount of time, limited by our ability to iterate tests with a remote, external test facility,” shared Romeijer, “With the MVG chambers in-house, we’ve gained an entire year in development time! With these systems, the time necessary for physical tuning has been cut in half compared to our old process.” This time gain has empowered the Pulsaart team to turn their extra test chamber resources into a new revenue stream, offering antenna measurement and connectivity testing services to wireless technology manufacturers.
With the antenna development team, production, and testing all in-house, Pulsaart has experienced a renaissance in innovation and product development. “We now have all the tools needed to boost evolution in our products,” shared Romeijer, “We have moved from developing single antennas to antenna systems, and creating something more custom and innovative with varying levels of integration within automotive and/or other platforms.” This is especially critical as the automotive industry - and aerospace, telecom, and rail - moves to integrate more wireless technology. “With these integrated antenna systems, testing scenarios are now increasingly more complex,” said Romeijer,” We can’t just test the antennas in isolation anymore, we have to test the entire system. Testing the full antenna system therefore has become extremely time-consuming, but MVG’s multi-probe chambers are fast and make this kind of testing much more feasible. It gives Pulsaart a huge edge in complex antenna testing.”
Click here to read the full article from MVG on their collaboration with Pulsaart.
Click here to learn more about Pulsaart by AGC.
