Antennas are getting the needed attention

Apr 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Ashok Bindra, Editorial Director

While antennas, also known as aerials, have been around since the birth of radio, it was always looked upon as a mundane passive component that must be added to the transmit/receive system after the design is complete to radiate or capture signals. It was never very exciting like the semiconductor processors and DSPs that came along to fuel the wireless revolution. The design was traditional and the performance was accepted. To maximize performance of a base station or a handset terminal of a wireless solution, the focus was on active components, making them smaller, better and cheaper.

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But, that perception has changed lately. For the past 10 years or more, developers have been aggressively advancing the technology to maximize the antenna performance. And, thereby, improve a receiver's and transmitter's performance with minimal or no additional cost to the solution. In fact, system designers have realized that the antenna is a vital component of the overall system performance. It can also play an important role in enhancing the capacity, range, power consumption and reliability of the system.

Consequently, improvements over the years has given rise to novel techniques like spatial diversity, multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO), and adaptive arrays — popularly known today as intelligent antennas. Well, for a passive conducting metal, where is this intelligence coming from? The answer lies in its configuration and the algorithm implemented in the associated chips that either power it or process the signal it captures. These chips are tightly coupled to the antenna or antennas, depending on the design.

Besides giving us the desired improvements in performance of our cell phones and base stations, a new generation of smart antennas are also making new applications possible. For instance, smart antenna technology promises to make in-vehicle satellite television feasible. And this capability was recently demonstrated at this year's Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, NV. In fact, developers of wafer-scale integration are exploring the idea of fabricating a multiple element steerable antenna array on an eight-inch wafer for beamforming and scanning to address applications like multiband communications, collision avoidance in automobiles, homeland security and surveillance, radiometry and many others.

Fueled by the 3G cellular growth and the new and emerging wireless applications like the broadband WiMAX and ultra-wideband (UWB) technologies, as well as the low-power short range home and industrial automation, the intelligent antenna industry is ready to take off, according to a new study conducted by market research firm Visant Strategies based in Kings Park, NY. Over the next year or so, the use of intelligent antenna technology in high-end cellular handsets and WiFi products will provide two new launching pads for the industry, the Visant study shows. Consequently, the market research firm expects MIMOs and othe intelligent antennas to appear within WiFi gear this year with substantial growth in this single market alone in the next couple of years. Similarly, the phone vendors will drive the technology into CDMA handsets in the next 12 months. And as 3G services proliferate, the technology is expected to gain further momentum.

It is not surprising to know that China has been a beneficiary of the advances in intelligent antennas. According to Visant, China has witnessed the greatest number of intelligent antenna deployments. Intelligent antennas were tested and integrated within PHS base stations in time to capitalize on China's wireless boom, the report shows. Next in line to exploit the benefits of intelligent antennas is Japan. Like China, Japan's PHS systems were also confronted with capacity shortages and growing data use. Options for capacity upgrade were limited at the time. Due to perceived cost of upgrades to wideband CDMA (WCDMA) services, research analysts at Visant see a similar adoption in the GSM markets.

As intelligent antennas begin to pervade emerging standards and systems over the next five years, the Visant study indicates that it will mainly be used to address unresolved voice capacity issues in extending the life of existing 2G networks in emerging and capital-intensive markets.