Hello Community,
I would like to take insights on the performance of the Ignion Virtual Antenna (Ex: FR01-S4-210 used on Horizon Argos ARTIC board) for Argos Satellite tracker application. I have to use a smallest possible antenna possible. If anyone tested & utilized the Ignion Virtual Antenna, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could share your thoughts.
Thanks in advance!!
Hi Arya01,
Thanks for asking about the FR01-S4-210 surface mounted antenna. I’ve attached a photograph of revision 1.0 and 1.1 regarding the use of this antenna.
Note - if you have a Rev 1.1 board is it hard wired to use the u.fl antenna connector and will bypass the surface mounted option by default. In terms of performance, using the FR01 is notably poorer in performance compared to a 401.6Mhz whip antenna, however, it is possible to transmit and have packets received. Actual performance in a real world environment would need to be assessed, possibly through the use of an enhanced groundplane too beyond just the board. We added the antenna as an experiment in early designs but switched to a whip antenna to increase performance.
A small helical antenna may also be an option for you in a constrained space, but if you do decide to use the FR01 you should expect performance drops and not all messages will be received.
Kind regards,
Alasdair
Dear Alasdair,
I greatly appreciate the information you’ve provided.
Given the space constraints of my application, I am exploring the possibility of utilizing a surface-mounted component(like the FR01…), a PCB trace, or a compact Helical antenna. If you’ve come across any Helical antenna specifications and corresponding part numbers within your experience with similar applications, I would be immensely grateful if you could share those details.
Thank you for your time, and I eagerly await your response.
Best regards,
Arya
Hi Arya,
The performance of an SMD antenna is correlated with the associated ground plane. You can take a look at the documentation for the 1004795 Kyocera antenna, which compares the results with different board lengths: Kyocera App note.
Additionally, you have other options like the ANT-418-HETC, which is a helical antenna designed to be mounted on a PCB. Another option to consider is the PRO-OB-468 by Abracon (PRO-OB-468 ABRACON).
You can check the availability of these antennas from local or online suppliers. I hope this information proves useful for your project. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.
Regards,
Geoffrey
