Advanced antenna manufacturing technologies

The RF performance of wireless consumer products is heavily affected by the antennas serving the various radio system. The antenna solutions provided for each communication system must be packaged in a manner compatible with high volume / low cost manufacturing processes and the systems employed to assemble them. In this paper, we present a trio of advanced antenna manufacturing processes developed to meet or exceed the stringent performance and packaging needs (present and future) for several disparate consumer wireless markets/product categories. This presentation details our unique, proprietary execution of the following advanced manufacturing processes: in-mold labeling (IML), print-and-plate (P&P) conductor deposition, and high performance/low cost RF substrate assemblies. We demonstrate the utility of these manufacturing processes by prototyping equivalent sets of benchmark antenna structures (employing both our advanced and conventional fabrication processes) and compare their measured RF performance using typical passive antenna metrics (radiated efficiency, antenna gain patterns, impedance match, etc.). The commendable RF performance of these manufacturing technologies, coupled with their packaging and assembly benefits, highlight the true significance of these innovative manufacturing technologies.