Taoglas has introduced at Mobile World Congress 2018 a new range of polymer-based series antennas that are 30 percent lighter than ceramic antennas and extremely resistant to fracture on impact.
This combination allows the antennas to be a good match for automotive and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), where impacts happen but the antenna performance will not be affected.
The Terrablast series of antennas are a polymer dielectric material composed of glass-reinforced epoxy laminate, compared to traditional patch antennas, which are ceramic. The rugged devices are about 30 percent lighter than traditional patches, which is good news for drones that are already looking to minimize weight in order to increase battery life.
The initial antennas include a 25-mm embedded 2.4 GHz patch antenna and a 35-mm embedded GPS patch antenna. The 2.4 Ghz patch features a circular polarized design for maximum performance to the transmitter or receiver frequency changes. The antenna weighs just 5.6 g compared to an equivalent ceramic patch of 8.5 g. Meanwhile, the 35-mm patch antenna features high efficiency of more than 70 percent across all bands, improving time to first fix (TTFX). This antenna is just 10 g, which is 5.5 g lighter than ceramic GNSS patches.
Mobile World Congress 2018 is taking place this week in Barcelona.
