Small antennas make possible cellular IoT wearable items

Altair Semiconductor and Ethertronics (a subsidiary of AVX) today announced a new small antenna technology, which will be demonstrated within a new cellular IoT wearable concept at Mobile World Congress Americas.

The technology is a significant breakthrough that combines Ethertronics’ ultra-small antenna with Altair’s ALT1250 dual-mode Cat-M1/NB-IoT chipset algorithms to reduce the size of cellular wearable devices without sacrificing performance.

“Ethertronics is a recognized leader in antenna design and tunable components, making it an excellent partner for developing this concept,” said Dima Feldman, Head of Product Management for Altair. “Combining Altair’s modem algorithmic capabilities with a world-class antenna designer has resulted in the smallest antenna design for cellular wearable devices and other tiny IoT devices, setting a new standard for antenna performance that improves coverage, power efficiency and overall user experience.”

The ALT1250 is the market’s most highly integrated dual-mode Cat-M1/NB-IoT chipset, with lowest power consumption and enabling longest battery life. It includes GNSS location positioning, a RF front-end supporting all commercial LTE bands within a single hardware design, a hardware-based security framework and an internal application subsystem.

“Until now, wearable device manufacturers have struggled to reduce the size of their products without sacrificing cellular coverage and overall performance,” said Olivier Pajona, Chief Scientist for Ethertronics. “Altair’s antenna tuning algorithm and leadership in integrated solutions, together with our expertise in antenna design, paves the way to developing the smallest and highest performing wearable devices.”

The prototype will be demonstrated by Altair at Mobile World Congress Americas from September 12 to 14 in Los Angeles.