UK antenna maker Antenova has introduced the Invicta 2.4GHz antenna to give wider coverage for tiny Bluetooth, wifi and Zigbee designs.

Under part number SRFW082, the antenna is for frequencies from 2.4 to 2.5GHz and averages efficiency of 70% across the 2.4GHz band. Designs using this antenna should operate better, over longer distances and through walls and obstacles, thus extending the coverage and performance of wireless devices using Bluetooth, wifi and Zigbee.

Invicta is a flexible printed circuit (FPC) antenna, which is said to be easy to place in a design. It connects directly to the PCB via a cable and IPX MHF (UFL) connector. The antenna comes with 100mm cable as standard and other cable lengths and connector options are available on request.

An FPC antenna is different to an SMD antenna in that it operates independent to a ground plane length and no antenna matching is required, so the design cycle for Invicta is simpler and shorter.

The FPC antenna also makes for easier manufacturing, as the antenna is fixed in place by a simple self-adhesive strip, and can be curved and inserted into the case of a design. This style of antenna is suited to small to medium volume manufacturing.

Antenova has designed the Invicta antenna primarily for smart battery-powered devices for the home and office, where one single device provides global coverage. Typical applications in the home would be smart meters, home automation, wireless sensor networks, and smoke and intruder alarms. It could also be used for remote monitoring in industrial and medical environments.

“The efficiency of an antenna is related to its size, with larger antennas usually providing better performance,” said Michael Castle, Antenova’s product marketing manager. “The Invicta antenna will be a winner because it performs better than PCB trace antennas and provides exceptional performance and range in return for the relatively small space in a design.”

Antenova develops and supplies integrated antennas and RF products for wireless communication, consumer electronic and wireless M2M devices. Its range of standard antennas and RF modules are suitable for GSM, CDMA, 3G, 4G, LTE, 5G-NR, 5G, NB-IoT, GPS, GNSS, wifi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, LP-WAN, LoRa, Sigfox, Weightless-P and ISM, for M2M and IoT applications.

The company also provides design advice and technical support, including custom antenna design, engineering, integration and test services.