Antennas for Wi-Fi6E devices
Antenova Ltd announced three Antennas for small Wi-Fi6 & Wi-Fi6E devices. They are a surface mounted antenna, a flexible antenna and an external antenna for Wi-Fi6 and Wi-Fi6E. All three antennas use the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands and support IEEE standards 802.11a/b/g/j/n/ac/ax.
The SMD antenna, named Billi, part number SR43W078, measures 15 mm x 6 mm x 1mm and requires only 1 mm of clearance on the PCB. This makes it an exceptionally low profile antenna solution for slim devices with a small space for the antenna. In tests this antenna showed very high efficiency across all three bands. It is suitable for pick-and-place manufacturing processes.
The FPC antenna, named Lotti, part number SRF3W077 is a flexible antenna measuring 30.0 x 8.0 x 0.15mm. It has a self-adhesive mounting for easy integration into small designs. This antenna does not require a ground plane on the PCB and also showed very high efficiency in tests.
The third new antenna is Nitida, part number SRE3W084, an antenna for external mounting. It is supplied with an SMA connector and offering a waterproof variant. This antenna is simple to add to a design because it does not require a matching network.
Wi-Fi6E brings faster networks with greater capacity that will deliver better online experiences and support simultaneous communications to many endpoints with increased security. Wi-Fi6E devices will make wireless networks in the office and smart home feel as fast as Ethernet.
Wi-Fi6E adds the additional channels of the less congested 6GHz radio band to carry even more data. It provides the speeds required to support 4K and 8K video, networked gaming, smart TV and video calling, and can support many connected IoT devices at large scale. Wi-Fi6E devices will complement 5G cellular services and is expected to become the standard in health, education, sports and entertainment markets where networks have large numbers of simultaneous users.
Michael Castle, Product Marketing Manager with Antenova explains: “These antennas will be good for high performing wireless devices that combine mobility with high throughput, for example routers and USB dongles for Wi-Fi6 and Wi-Fi6E, games consoles, set-top boxes, surveillance cameras, networked IoT devices and MIMO systems. The Lotti and Nitida antennas connect directly to a PCB which makes for an easier integration and a shorter design cycle.”
The emerging Wi-Fi7 standard will also utilise the 6GHz band, so manufacturers choosing one of these antennas now will be positioned to deliver lightning-fast Wi-Fi7 speeds in future.
