Driving on-board antennas

As demand grows for more sophisticated in-vehicle communications systems, the automobile industry is facing significant challenges in the design of suitable antennas that can support the growing range of required services. Collaborating researchers from Hongik University and Hyundai-Kia Motors in Korea are now adopting a more practical approach to in-vehicle antenna design and have built a prototype printed rear-window car FM antenna that is optimised by taking the influence of the entire vehicle structure into account. They now plan to expand their research to in-vehicle multiband window, diversity and MIMO antennas to provide these systems with an improved reception reliability and throughput data capacity.