Sarantel Announces Miniature GPS Antennas for Portable Devices

By Doug Lung
published

Ever wonder what the GPS antenna inside your portable car navigation device looks like? A news release from Sarantel shows pictures of a very small helical antenna.

Sarantel has announced a new antenna, the LBS Pro", which is billed as "a miniature, energy saving and high-performance GPS antenna aimed at mobile handset manufacturers whose commercial strategies depend on successful consumer adoption of location based services (LBS)."

Sarantel said the LBS Pro has the accuracy and performance to allow it to be used for hand-free pedestrian navigation.

Some of its features may also be useful for mobile TV reception, if that technology scales to UHF frequencies. Sarantel said the LBS Pro and its "PowerHelix" and GeoHelix" filtering technology significantly outperforms traditional technologies, claiming it does not lose energy or de-tune when held close to the body. This allows consumers to leave their GPS-enabled phone in their pocket while listening to turn-by-turn directions.

More technical details include a beamwidth in excess of 130 degrees and an integrated balun that isolates the antenna from the device ground plane. The device is designed to be embedded in the cell phone.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.