Unlike most current and historical narrow band communications systems such as Cellular, Wi-Fi and GNSS, the Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) spectrum spans multiple GHz of frequency bandwidth from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. This means that not only the approach has to be different at system level, but also advanced antennas have to be designed and utilized. Taoglas has developed a range of antennas optimized for Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) applications.
They has developed various innovative and new-to-the-market antennas designed for seamless integration, using simple adhesive and highly flexible micro-coaxial cable mounting while achieving high performance where space is limited. Taoglas engineers have successfully simplified the monopole antenna designs currently available. The advancement enables flexible cable and connector feeding instead of a rigid PCB with SMA connector terminal mount. This results in easier and sleeker antenna integration inside the device housing.
The FXUWB.01 Antenna is their Flagship antenna in this series. It is a high performance 4 dBi omnidirectional antenna designed to cover UWB frequencies from 6 to 7.5 GHz. This small form factor antenna measures just 15.5 x 18 x 0.2 mm and is ground plane independent offering an efficiency of over 75%.
Potential applications for the FXUWB.01 may include future smart home and entertainment systems that can take advantage of high data rates for streaming high quality audio and video content in real time, localization applications in healthcare and safety for seniors and infants, or even precise non-invasive and non-ionizing imaging for cancer detection. Other applications may include precise asset localization and identification for security, such as wireless keyless cars and premise entry systems.
Existing localization technologies such as Assisted GPS for Indoors, Wi-Fi and Cellular fingerprinting are at best able to offer meter precision, while UWB enables centimeter level localization precision for indoor and outdoor localization as well as very high transmission speed. This technology potential comes from the ultra-wide frequency bandwidth (wider than 500 MHz, commonly 1 to 2 GHz) which means that the radiated pulses can a duration of less than 1 millisecond.
Taoglas is the recommended UWB antenna supplier for DecaWave. Their FXUWB.01 can be used with the DecaWave module and they are currently collaborating to develop embedded antenna solutions for user equipment. Other projects under development with DecaWave include a circularly polarized chip antenna for launch in early 2017.
The FXUWB.01 is expected to launch over the coming weeks.
