KYOCERA AVX has released a web-based antenna integration tool to streamline, accelerate and optimise the antenna selection process for RF design engineers.

The Antenna Integrator Studio can help improve product quality, performance and go-to-market timelines for manufacturers.

Wireless connectivity has become a ubiquitous capability for electronic products extending throughout every industry. As such, RF engineering has become an essential element of most electronic product designs. Selecting the right antenna and the right PCB positioning for that antenna is a crucial part of this process, as the wrong selections can result in signal attenuation, severe impedance mismatch, drastically reduced range and excessive battery drain.

Avoiding these outcomes is especially imperative in industries with strict performance, space and environmental constraints, including the consumer electronics, automotive, medical, industrial IoT, telecommunications and high-speed networking industries.

The antenna tool (ais.kyocera-avx.com) is designed for easy, intuitive use. Users simply enter their PCB size and the number of antennas they need, select the target frequency bands, choose their optimisation priority – increasing efficiency or reducing cost – and click analyse to reveal instantly the most suitable antennas in the most optimal positions for their PCB layout, along with interactive performance charts.

Users can then analyse the results in detail, evaluating efficiency, return loss, peak gain and radiation patterns across frequency bands, and download DXF and 3D files for seamless integration into their PCB designs. The tool also makes it easy to order samples and begin prototyping and includes a roughly four-minute video tutorial that walks users through a workflow to enhance ease of use.

This first version includes thousands of simulations of board-mounted embedded antennas. Future versions will include additional features and antenna technologies.

“Our new Antenna Integrator Studio is a powerful online tool designed to help RF engineers make smarter, faster, data-driven decisions during the antenna selection and layout process and deliver higher-quality, higher-performance wireless products,” said Carmen Redondo from KYOCERA AVX (www.kyocera-avx.com). “Competing solutions often require engineers to manually select and place antennas on their digital board layout to evaluate results. The Antenna Integrator Studio eliminates that guesswork, saving valuable time, and makes it quick and easy for engineers to optimise their designs for performance or cost effectiveness and evaluate simulated performance, which helps accelerate go-to-market timelines.”