08-02-2022 | Kyocera AVX | Design & Manufacture
KYOCERA AVX has launched what is claimed to be the industry’s first evaluation board for testing antenna band switching performance. The new Antenna Band Switching Evaluation Board (1004795-EC646-01) comprises standard products, including an embedded, universal broadband, FR4 LTE/LPWA antenna (1004795), an Ether Switch and Tune chipset (EC646) for band switching or aperture tuning, a battery holder to power the RF switch, a female SMA connector, and a small (45.5mm x 60mm) evaluation board optimised for testing the antenna performance of standard-sized IoT devices. It is engineered to lower the number of device design iterations, improve accuracy, and quicken product time-to-market for low- and high-band frequency (968–960MHz and 1.71–2.17GHz) 4G, 5G, broadband LTE, LTE Cat-M, NB-IoT, and cellular LPWA applications including cellular headsets and tablets, handheld electronics, telematics, tracking, embedded designs, and on-board diagnostics (OBD-II) systems, and industrial M2M, IoT, healthcare, home automation, and smart grid devices.
The new board is RoHS compliant, measures 45.5mm x 60mm, weighs 10.5g and is rated for operating temperatures spanning -40C to +85C. It displays less than -2.5dB return loss, 50-Ohm unbalanced feed-point impedance, linear polarisation, and 2W CW power handling. At low-band frequencies, the board exhibits peak gain ranging from -3.67dBi to -1.75dBi and average efficiency ranging from 18–30%, specifically: -3.67dBi and 18% from 890–960MHz (RF1), -2.77dBi and 22% from 700–800MHz (RF2), -2.76dBi and 20% from 700–750MHz (RF3), and -1.75dBi and 30% from 790–890MHz (RF4). High-band frequencies spanning 1.71–2.17GHz exhibit a peak of 1.95dBi and 60% at RF3.
“The new KYOCERA AVX Antenna Band Switching Evaluation Board is the first of its kind available in the global electronics market and will help RF design engineers optimise antenna size, performance, and emissions, reduce the number of device design iterations, more easily satisfy customer and regulatory specifications, and hasten product time-to-market,” said Carmen Redondo, global marketing manager, Antennas, KYOCERA AVX. “It is also optimally sized for testing the performance of IoT devices, equipped with proven KYOCERA AVX components including a high-performance, universal broadband, FR4 LTE antenna with patented IMD technology and an Ether Switch and Tune chipset, and ideal for testing consumer electronics, industrial, medical, IoT, embedded systems, and utility market applications including cellular headsets and tablets, handheld electronics, embedded designs, telematics, tracking, and on-board diagnostics (OBD-II) systems, and industrial M2M, IoT, healthcare, home automation, and smart grid devices with operating frequencies extending from 968–960MHz and 1.71–2.17GHz.”
Further benefits of the board include the capability to be trimmed down or extended with copper tape to better match the physical size of test devices with smaller or larger form factors, compatibility with the company’s 1004796 embedded, universal broadband, FR4 LTE/LPWA antenna provided that the original PCB layout is mirrored, and compatibility with custom antenna designs given the assistance of technical KYOCERA AVX personnel.
