subject: Advice About Pcb Antennas Featuring The Echo 2 Pcb Antenna [print this page] The PCB antenna is sometimes referred to as a paper-clip antenna, it typically consists of a wire or flat strip of metal that connects to the PCB then follows a similar layout as the etched PCB antenna.
PCB antennas can be a patch, loop, spiral or wire, but all do have a PCB space. The PCB antennas performance is dependent on its layout, its dimensions and its placement with respect to nearby components. In addition, a user's hand, body or head usually have a detrimental impact on the antenna's performance. Any changes to the product's components or overall PCB layout will ripple into the antenna performance, so the design is constrained and pre-release revisions are not trivial.
Other problems inherent in the use of PCB antennas are that conventional PCB antennas can deform under heat and can transmit excessive levels of acoustic noise and vibration. Further, conventional PCB techniques employ environmentally hostile etching or time-consuming milling steps to implement the desired waveguide patterns into the metal foil.
However, PCB antennas answer the need for a pluggable solution which can be easily integrated utilising the RF connector onboard many wireless modules. These PCB strips are tuned to various frequencies and terminated with differing lengths of cables and connector styles offering compatibility with the wireless module.
The PCB antennas have vast applications. Operating at 2.3GHz, they can be used in many applications including: snack machines, vending machines, auto mat machines, cash registers, slot machines, credit card machines, wireless "chip & pin" devices, ATMs, Gas Meters, Parking Meters and more.
Choosing a cheaper PCB antenna is a false economy and often results in a more expensive overall network cost. Typically, low-cost antennas have poor or unreliable performance characteristics such as high loss and interference as well as inappropriate beam widths. All too common in low cost PCB antennas is the usage of lower quality board material that has higher losses.
Echo 2 is a multi purpose PCB antenna that is based on an efficiently tuned element that is matched with a wide variety of RF and M2M modules operating on Cellular, 868 and 2.4GHz ISM band frequencies. The Echo 2 PCB antenna is designed for embedded applications.
Already proven in many applications where space is at a premium, the Echo 2 is ideal as it is ground plane independent and compact making it a popular choice where a small size combined with efficient performance is critical. The antennas wide ranging connector and cable options also makes it a viable antenna where a quick design in and fast time to market is important.
Measuring just 75 x 25mm with a thickness of just 1mm, the ECHO 2 series comes in a variety of cable and connector options making the Echo 2 PCB antenna a popular antenna choice.
