A British tech start-up has introduced a new device that is the first of its kind—a single antenna for laptops specially designed to fit within the limited space of the hinge cavity, and capable of providing the device with Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth and 3G/4G LTE and WiGig 60GHz wireless standards.
Smart Antenna Technology’s (SAT) device, which was developed by scientists at the University of Birmingham, could be used to replace as many as five antennas presently found in the standard laptop. This could lead to a bevy of improvements for the laptop, ranging from design improvements to reducing overall manufacturing costs.
The founder of SAT, Dr. Sampson Hu, explained that one of the issues with laptop antennas nowadays is the fact that these devices cannot be located immediately next to each other; this would lead to signal interference which, in turn, would degrade the device’s performance.
“Within the current laptop the antennas for Wi-Fi or a mobile signal need to be separate so there is no interference of frequencies,” he explained. “If the laptop has a metal casing then it is impossible to embed an antenna on the top of laptop screen or motherboard and the antenna must sit in the hinge cavity.
“However, the hinge cavity is a very limited space in which laptop manufactures can only fit two conventional antennas, one for Wi-Fi and one for 3G/4G LTE. If conventional antennas are brought so close together interference degrades efficiency and increases battery usage.
“Additionally If a laptop has metallic covers there is no other space to locate the second conventional Wi-Fi antenna and 3G/4G LTE antennas to support Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) function to provide enhanced data download rates.
“That's the problem we have overcome with our integrated MIMO antenna system. All the antennas are combined together as one single system.”
Early tests indicate the MIMO antenna system improved both data download rates as well as the battery life of the laptop.
“Our antenna system structure is a world first as it means all the antenna functionality is wrapped into one simple assembly, reducing the cost and size,” Dr. Hu explained. “Another problem that affects laptops is if you are working on a laptop and your hand is placed on the keyboard it often interferes with any of the five antennas. With our invention there is no interruption.”
While there is no hard deadline in terms of time to market, SAT is in discussion with Sony to manufacture the antenna system at the company’s Technology Center in Wales.
Via Phys.org
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