How to integrate multiple antennas into vehicles

8th September 2015

Antenova Ltd

Nat Bowers

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Datasheet

Antenova has built a model design for On Board Devices (OBDs) and vehicle telematics, which the company will be showing at CTIA Supermobility 2015. The OBD design uses three antennas inside an OBD housing to link to a satellite (GNSS), Bluetooth and a terrestrial network, whilst obtaining optimum performance from all three antennas simultaneously. The design also features a small GNSS RF module to fix location, which Antenova is showing for the first time.

Antenova has used the latest antennas from it product ranges in the OBD design: the Armata 3G FPC antenna for penta-band frequencies which operates at 824-960 and 1710-2170MHz; a GNSS antenna named Bentoni operating at 1559-1609MHz; and the tiny Weii PCB-mounted antenna which provides a Bluetooth connection at 2.4GHz. All of these are brand new antennas which have been released by Antenova this year.

The GPS/GNSS module (Antenova part number M10578) is a complete receiver that provides accurate location tracking for OBDs. It uses the latest MediaTek chipset with an additional LNA to give added performance when mounted under dashboards and out of line of sight with the sky.

Antenova’s product designers recently introduced the concept of 'Design For Integration' (DFI), which considers how the RF antenna will operate when it is embedded with a manufacturer’s product. Antenova’s antennas are always used within a customer’s design, so they are designed to provide superior RF performance from within the device and to make the integration of the RF elements easier for the designer. In addition to this, Antenova provides its customers with technical support during the design, integration and testing phases.

Colin Newman, Managing Director, Antenova, explained: “We are demonstrating how a design for an OBD can give great performance, even when new antennas are added to an existing design. OBD devices are growing fast in popularity and the design of the RF components is critical to the overall performance of a device. In particular, Antenova’s engineers have invested many years in designing antennas that work effectively in very small spaces, whilst maintaining the efficiency of the antenna.”