New low-profile antennas offer the widest range for automotive applications

Kyocera AVX recently released the new A-Series low-profile, surface-mount automotive antennas at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. The new series of low-profile SMT antennas are qualified according to AEC-Q200 standards and provide the industry's widest range of AEC-Q200-compliant antennas for automotive applications, including wireless BMS, telematics control units, and vehicle access key fobs. They support a wide range of wireless technologies – including GNSS L1/L2/L5/L6, ISM, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth, cellular, LTE, 5G, and UWB – and provide frequencies extending from 617MHz to 8.5GHz. The surface-mount devices are also developed to deliver superior RF field containment for improved performance in reception-critical applications and are available in stamped metal, FR-4, ceramic chip, and ultra-small chip packages, all of which are RoHS compliant.

Although the automotive industry quality standard AEC-Q200 does not include antenna products, all device series testing has been done per AEC-Q200 procedures and requirements, including automotive-grade testing for temperature cycling, mechanical shock, and vibration. The series is also available with IMDS and PPAP documentation important to automotive manufacturers.

Some of the new series antennas also feature the company's Isolated Magnetic Dipole (IMD) technology, allowing them to provide higher functionality and performance in smaller, thinner designs. Also, two antennas (the A1001013 and A1001011) can work both on- and off-ground. This ability is critical for heavily metallic environments, such as wBMS, where the antenna supplies wireless communication between the battery cell monitor chip and the BMS control unit.

"The new A-Series provides automotive design engineers with reliable, high-performance antennas tested in accordance with AEC-Q200 standards, and manufacturers are already taking note," said Carmen Redondo, director of Global Marketing for Antennas at KYOCERA AVX. "One of the A-Series antennas, the A1001013, has been selected for inclusion in Analog Devices' (ADI) wBMS reference design, based in part on its unique ability to operate in both off-ground and on-ground environments."

ADI is committed to developing a robust information ecosystem around EV battery data. Its wBMS, currently deployed across multiple EV platforms, offers ISO 21434 Cybersecurity Assurance Level Four (CAL 4) certification and is an industry benchmark for RF robustness and efficiency. So, including Kyocera AVX A-Series antennas is evidence of their extremely high quality level.