Designing efficient antennas for cell phones isn't easy, even when they only operate in one or two relatively narrow frequency bands. It becomes even more difficult if the antenna needs to provide reception over the entire UHF TV band or include coverage of some of the new spectrum becoming available to mobile operators outside traditional cell phone and PCS bands.
Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation says its "DuNE" technology is the solution.
"One of the most significant challenges facing the mobile handset designers is the poor antenna performance for multi-band multi-mode handsets," Tero Ranta, manager for advanced technology at Peregrine, said in a news release Monday. "Dynamically tuning the antenna to compensate for the increasing bandwidth requirements and environmental effects will significantly improve the antenna performance."
Ranta added that should the demand for additional services develop for mobile television (DVB-H or ISDB-T), the requirement for antenna tuning becomes critical.
"Until now, no tunable element met the needs of the mobile products industry in power handling, reliability, high volume production and integration," Ranta said. "Peregrine's DuNE Technology is the key to unlocking the future of digital tunability in mobile RF systems."
The Peregrine tunable capacitors can be designed with capacitance values ranging from 0.5 pf to 10 pf with typical tuning ratios ranging from 3.1 to 6.1. The "Q" of the capacitors ranges from 40 to 80 at 1 to 2 GHz. The capacitance is digitally controlled, proving 5 bits or 32 states of resolution. They can handle over 38 dBm of power in a 50-ohm circuit. More information is available on the DuNE Antenna Tuning Technology Web page.
