Ethertronics Inc., a provider of standard and customized embedded antenna solutions for wideband and multi-band wireless devices, introduced a small ceramic GPS antenna. At 4 x 2 x 1.08 mm and 0.2 grams, Ethertronics’ Savvi™ Embedded Ceramic Antenna is designed for integration into many small form factor devices including GPS-enabled mobile phones, personal media players and navigation equipment without sacrificing performance and efficiency.
Designed to operate at 1.575 GHz, this antenna includes Ethertronics’ patented Isolated Magnetic Dipole™ (IMD) technology, enabling industry-leading high-isolation characteristics, immunity to frequency shifts and de-tuning resistance in a small footprint. The antenna’s efficiency is 58 percent with an operating bandwidth greater than 40 MHz at a -7 dB return loss figure. Ethertronics’ small, linearly polarized GPS antenna provides equivalent performance to larger circularly polarized patch antennas in moderate to high multi-path environments. In vehicles and buildings, antenna efficiency is paramount compared to polarization, and this is where the small form factor GPS antenna delivers value-added performance. By utilizing Ethertronics IMD technology, this antenna inherently provides high selectivity, which eliminates the cost and space for additional, complex filters that are otherwise needed to remove UMTS- or AWS-band signal interference.
“For GPS applications, link quality is critical and cannot be compromised by poor antenna efficiency,” said Jeff Shamblin, vice president of advanced technology, Ethertronics. “Additionally, since most GPS devices include multiple antennas, it’s important that the GPS radio link quickly acquires signals without interference and detuning. We are able to package many performance features from enhanced antenna efficiency to high isolation into the world’s smallest GPS antenna, and believe it will play a key role in the proliferation of new GPS devices, especially as these services gain global momentum and consumer desire for faster GPS readings grows.”