What Are Chip Antennas And How To Select The Right Chip Antenna For A Device?

The phrase 'chip antenna' is used to describe an antenna which share common characteristics

which are a high performance solution in a compact, low profile design of embedded antennas. But the blanket term chip antenna also covered other integrated antennas including the patch antenna and ceramic antennas.

Chip antennas are widely used in wireless communication devices such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), GPS satellite navigation, laptops and other everyday electronics providing wide ranging functionality including Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, UWB etc. Today's small hand-held devices challenge antenna designers with demands for ultra-thin, compact sizes and high-performance devices that have the ability to meet multiple standards.

Chip antennas are generally made of a dielectric material comprising barium oxide, aluminium oxide and silica as major components. Chip antennas must comply with electronics standards published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). IEEE 802.11b was the first widely accepted wireless networking standard.

With the wireless communication industry continually expanding, there is more and more demand for antenna solutions which provide a combination of high performance, low cost and small size to support the increasing number of wireless protocols and chip antennas fit the bill.

There are three major types of chip antennas. The first is a multilayer chip antenna with P/N starting "LDA". Basically, this is a linearly-polarized, helical antenna manufactured by multilayer processes. Another type of chip antenna is the dielectric antenna with P/N starting "ANC". This type is a linearly-polarized, patch type antenna that is manufactured by printing an antenna pattern on a ceramic block. These can be single or dual resonant antennas. A subset of that family is the GPS patch antenna that is circularly polarized for use in GPS (satellite) application, also starting "ANC". Within these families, there are many variations resulting in a wide variety of antenna solutions.

Generally, surface mounted chip antennas are used as antennas for small-sized communication devices, and have been recently popularized as global positioning system (GPS) antennas within mobile communication terminals.

A ceramic antenna is a small antenna component made of ceramic material. There are several types of ceramic antennas, each with its own characteristics. Examples of antennas made from ceramic material include monopoles, inverted F antennas (IFA), and planar inverted F antennas (PIFA).

Surface mounted dielectric chip antennas are electrically small antennas often used on small platforms such as mobile communications devices. They are characterised by having a block of dielectric material mounted on a non-ground area of a circuit board. Conductive tracks are printed on the dielectric block and it is these tracks that form the antenna rather than the dielectric material itself.

Chip antennas come in various sizes, with a wide range of gain values and return-loss values, depending on the frequency range desired for the antenna. When you are selecting a chip antenna, there are a number of elements that need to be weighed up before deciding on the right chip antenna to use. Of course the ultimate factor influencing is the price, and selecting a chip antenna which gives you the maximum benefits at a cost that remains within budget.

by: Chris Cowper

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