What is the range of chip antennas or PCB antennas?

[pankaj]

Hello,

Can anybody tell me what is the range of chip antennas or PCB antennas.
Nowadaya many of the PDA's with WIfi support come without any visisble antenna. Do they use a chip antenna or a PCB antenna, or is just thatthe Antenna is just tucked inside the PDA cabinet.

Pankaj

 

[mowgli]

Re: Chip Antenna

Hello Pankaj,

the communication range depends also on the transmitter power. Devices with similar antenna (= antenna's gain) could have significantly different maximum ranges because of different policy adopted in managing the TX power.
Common ranges for WiFi modules integrated in modern PDA /cell phones are in the order of few tenth of meters, because the transmitter power is optimized for battery duration, not for wide area coverage (and also to avoid cooking user's brain, considering that the emitter is located very close to the head).
The chip antenna is very common nowadays because a hidden antenna aesthetically is better than a dipole.

Regards
Mowgli

 

[Azulykit]

Re: Chip Antenna

I usually view chip antennas with some suspicion when it comes to gain and efficiency. They are attractive from a size viewpoint but one needs to have a sense of humor about the performance when they are electrically small.

Use caution.