Chip Antennas

A chip antenna is an antenna with a small footprint that you can integrate into a circuit board. The chip antenna receives and radiates high-frequency electromagnetic (EM) waves. Antennas are essential for wireless communication between device and device. The antenna converts EM waves into electric current and vice versa, enabling the transfer of information between two devices.

Chip antennas work like any other antenna – it is just a lot smaller in scale. The chip antenna is installed with another electronic circuit that receives and transmits EM or radio waves.

An antenna is a combination of input (receiver) and output (transmitter) transducers. The radio waves received by the input transducer convert to AC electric current. The output transducer takes the AC and converts it to radio waves or whatever frequency of EM waves the chip antenna design accommodates.

A chip antenna, otherwise known as a dielectric resonance antenna, is a cavity resonator. A sintered ceramic fills the cavity, but this does not affect the standing EM wave’s oscillation because the ceramic chosen has high permittivity. The radiation pattern is like a classic dipole antenna but in a much smaller space and with fewer losses.

The significant difference between PCB antennas and Chip antennas is the size of the components and the amount of space necessary for them to operate. Modern applications require devices that communicate effectively on multiple wireless frequencies, which means you need an array of antennas. Plus, the available space or the circuit is limited.

In these applications, chip antennas are the best solution because they can sit alongside each other in a small volume. A PCB antenna is larger and requires clear space around it to avoid detuning and interference.

Chip antennas make it possible to hook an object up to a communication network, and you find them everywhere:

• Smart grid – controlling energy supply and use, saving you money on your utilities.
• Internet of things (IoT) – your fridge can tell you when it runs out of milk.
• Tracking – tag objects and people. You always know where to find them.
• Communications – PCs, phones, and anything else that uses WiFi.
• Health – transmit medical details to your doctor from a wearable device.
• Fitness – track your fitness goals and map your daily run.
• Monitoring – transmitting data about industrial processes like fluid flow down a pipe.

A chip antenna lets one thing communicate with another thing, and more innovative uses arrive every day, from a smart key that starts your car to a blood sugar monitor that tells you when to take your insulin.  

Any industry can and does take advantage of the opportunities for working smarter and more efficiently with chip antennas:

• Consumer electronics – smartphones, wearables, tablets, gaming machines
• Automotive – automatic diagnostic and software upgrades and keyless operation.
• IT and Communications – anything that talks wirelessly needs an antenna.
• Healthcare – collecting and transmitting health data plus remote monitoring.
• Defense – tracking people and objects for security and other applications.
• Others – marketing, stock control, and data collection and workflow.

GPS Chip Antenna: A GPS chip antenna receives and translates signals from the range of Global Positioning Satellites, typically allowing your phone or car software to show you your position on a digital map. The same technology is useful in tracking a fleet of vehicles and other logistical applications. Our GPS chip antenna works with 1575.42MHz.

GNSS Chip Antenna: A GNSS chip antenna operates on the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) satellite frequencies. GPS is part of the GNSS network, first developed for the military and then offered to the civilian population. All GNSS chip antenna can access GPS signals, but the GPS network is more restricted. The GNSS network is perfect for precision agriculture, remote control of machines, transport, and any other application with a geographical component.

Our stock GNSS chip antenna covers GPS (1575.42MHz) and GLONASS, BEIDOU, and GALILEO networks (1560-1606MHz). We can custom design to any other frequency parameters.

ISM Chip Antenna: ISM chip antenna covers the radio frequency bands set aside for Industrial, Scientific, and Medical use: 433MHz, 863-870MHz, and 902-928MHz.

Bluetooth Chip Antenna: Bluetooth chip antenna, WiFi chip antenna, and Zigbee chip antenna all operate in the desirable 2.4-2.5GHz range where most homes and businesses use their network of connected devices.

LTE Chip antenna: LTE Chip antenna covers the cellular frequencies (680-960MHz, 1710-2170MHz, 2300-2400MHz, and 2490-2690MHz). LTE or Long-term Evolution is one of the more common 4G (fourth generation) standards and enables faster data sharing of larger files. A full-band chip antenna covers all the communication protocols up to 4G.

Considering other frequency of chip antennas, we have:

• WiMAX/ Wi-Fi Dual Band: 2400-2500MHz & 4900-5900MHz
• UWB: 3.1 GHz—10.6 GHz
• GSM: 380—1900 MHz
• CDMA: 1850—1995 MHz

It is worth having a chat with one of our experts about your application because we can give you plenty of advice about what the various frequency bands mean for your application. Plus, we can design the chip antenna to match your specific needs.

The efficiency of a chip antenna depends on the following factors:

• Layout – how the chip antenna rests on the ground plane affects the formation of the resonant circuit necessary for performance.
• Orientation – a single chip antenna needs to be vertical to position the null zones above and below it, allowing omnidirectional performance.
• Impedance matching promotes higher transmission efficiency by minimizing energy loss and reflection and defining the antenna aperture.
• Enclosures – the material chosen for the protective enclosure interacts with and may impact a chip antenna performance.

The specification features defining your chip antenna are:

• Wireless Network – Choose which wireless network has to be connected with devices. WiFi, GPS, LoRa, LTE, ISM etc.
• Center frequency – the frequency at which you get the best signal strength in the band covering the upper and lower cut-off.
• Bandwidth – this tells you the range of frequencies the antenna will receive and transmit radio signals.
• Gain – a measure (in decibels) of the amount of electromagnetic wave energy directed towards a target in the circuit.
• Impedance – the ratio of voltage to current and impacts on energy efficiency and transmission within the antenna.
• Power rating – relates to the antenna’s ability to transmit radio frequencies into electrical current for efficient operation.

Before you search the chip antenna market for your application, it is worth understanding the specification necessary to achieve your aims. Sometimes, it is better to have chip antennas designed to order rather than compromise with a standard stock item that doesn’t fit your needs.

A ceramic chip antenna’s significant advantages are a small size and high quality, allowing them to fit inside smaller devices than a standard antenna.

The advantages of chip antennas include:

• Small size – ideal for wearable devices, and it occupies minimal space on a PCB.
• Reduces the need for a prototype because it has consistent performance.
• Flexible – it sits in multiple configurations and accommodates design changes on the PCB.
• Easy to tune and easy to replace as a component in a design as it is surface mounted.
• Ceramic antennas GPS are less sensitive to other noisy components or environments.

The twin disadvantages of a ceramic chip antenna are that:

• They cost a bit more, but they contribute to a more cost-effective total design, especially in multilayered PCBs.
• They perform slightly less well than the equivalent PCB antenna that is drawn directly onto the circuit board.