The new digital antenna could change the future of mobile phones read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/745-the-new-digital-antenna-could-change-the-future-of-mobile-phones

Researchers from University of Aalto have developed a method that allows antennas to make the shift from the analogue to the digital world.

Usually, antenna works with either one or few different frequencies. Many smartphone applications like GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will no longer need their own antennas. Instead, all of the phone's data transfer can take place through one digitally controlled antenna.

The new antenna can have greater bandwidth, which leads to a higher data transfer speed which is 100 to 1000 times faster than that of current phones, and battery life will be improved greater efficiency.

It also disposes of the analogue components that traditional antennas use to tune into the desired frequency. This facilitates antenna design and enables the creation of more compact antennas with better radiation efficiency.

These antennas designed using standard technology, it is possible to obtain either a broad frequency range or high efficiency, but not both at the same time. because the frequency range used by mobile phones has been continuously increasing.

Poor radiation efficiency leads to a short transmission range, for which network operators are then forced to compensate with a denser network of base stations. Energy is wasted in both the phone and the base station. In addition, increasing the network density is expensive.

Professor of Radio Engineering Ville Viikari said that the new method will revolutionize the fifth generation of mobile phones and maintain Finland as one of the leading countries in the development of mobile phone antennas.