Simulation Reduces Design Time For EV-DO Antenna From 6 Months To 6 Weeks

The integration of increasing numbers of radio frequency (RF) devices into personal computers substantially increases the difficulties of antenna design. Envelope restrictions often make it necessary to optimize antenna performance within tight space constraints. Putting WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular antennas in close proximity within a single package also creates the potential for cross-talk. Itronix, a leading developer of rugged, wireless computing solutions, faced these challenges in integrating a third wireless antenna, for EVDO reception, into a notebook computer. The company iterated to an optimal design in a minimal amount of time by simulating a wide range of antenna designs using software that captures the full broadband response of the antenna in one simulation cycle.

With customers that include world recognized organizations such as Sears, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines, FBI, Verizon, and Florida Power & Light, Itronix is one of the world's leading providers of wireless, rugged mobile computing solutions. According to recent research by Venture Development Corporation (VDC), Itronix is currently ranked the number one fully rugged notebook computer provider in Europe and number two in North America. Beyond its state-of-the-art hardware solutions, one of Itronix' key differentiators is its wireless integration expertise, which includes a comprehensive offering of wireless mobility solutions that provide mobile workers with roaming wireless coverage, as well as Common Radio Module Architecture which enables seamless upgrades as new wireless technologies emerge.

As an example of Itronix's leading-edge wireless capabilities is its early support for Evolution Data Only or Evolution Data Optimized, often abbreviated as EVDO, wireless technology in several mobile computer designs. EVDO is a wireless radio broadband data protocol being adopted by many CDMA mobile phone providers. Compared to earlier generation 1xRTT networks, or the GPRS and EDGE networks employed by their GSM competitors, 1xEV-DO is significantly faster, providing access terminals with download speeds of up to 2.4 Mbit/s. One of Itronix' early products with built-in 1900 MHz EV-DO capabilities is a notebook that also supports 2.4 GHz Bluetooth. The company's engineers recently designed a second EVDO antenna for this notebook with the goal of improving receive performance.

The main challenge in this application was the limited amount of space that was available for another antenna and the potential for interference with and from the existing Bluetooth transceiver. The main EVDO antenna was located in the display so the new receive antenna was designed to fit into a 30 mm long by 22 mm wide by 5 mm high space under the palm rest. Mike Decker, principle electrical engineer for Itronix, used as a starting point a design that the company had previously designed as a Bluetooth antenna. The design was printed with copper traces on a printed circuit board.