Miniaturized reconfigurable antennas for IoT devices

What if IoT antennas could be made even smaller without compromising efficiency simply by tuning their frequency? A PhD candidate at Leti did just that! She also developed an analytical model that is as reliable as today’s simulators.

Leti fabricated an antenna whose size is no more than 1/15^th of the wavelength, compared to the usual size of around ¼ of the wavelength. The antenna maintains high radiation efficiency by instantly covering only the band of the signal emitted, around 500 kHz.

To cover the rest of the band used in the target application, the antenna’s frequency is tuned by a fast digital management module for RF components designed at Leti and integrated into the antenna.

Manufacturers have already expressed interest

The PhD candidate who did the research also bumped up against another hurdle: The available electromagnetic simulators were not well-suited to investigating the impact of ohmic losses in miniature antennas. So, she solved that problem, too, by developing a faster analytical model to study impedance and radiation efficiency. She used the model to run even more tests and improve the dimensioning and position of the components on the radiating element.

A patent was filed to protect the antenna miniaturization technology, which has already garnered interest from several manufacturers. The PhD candidate, Rana Berro, will spend the last year of her program fabricating and testing prototypes. She won a special award for her research at IWAT2020 in Bucharest in February.

Contact: serge.bories@cea.fr

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