[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #431: Morphing antennas

Wed Apr 1 10:30:52 EDT 2015

 OPLIN 4Cast     Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.
<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/>  [image: OPLIN 4Cast]

OPLIN 4cast #431: Morphing antennas
April 1st, 2015

[image: Wi-Fi router]Ethertronics Inc. got some attention in the technology
media about a month ago when they announced that they had developed a chip
for wireless routers that changes the radiation pattern of the router's
antennas to fit the characteristics of a space. Ethertronics (and some
other companies) have previously been doing work in the area of developing
"reconfigurable" antennas for mobile phones and tablets, and at least one
university is also doing research
<http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6948228>
in this area, reportedly with military funding. Reconfigurable antennas in
routers could improve wireless performance substantially and might
alleviate the need for multiple wireless routers in some places.

   - Wi-Fi signals can now penetrate thick walls and cover long distances
   <http://www.deccanchronicle.com/150219/technology-latest/article/wi-fi-signals-can-now-penetrate-thick-walls-and-cover-long>
   (Deccan Chronicle | Francis D'Sa) "The chip enables Active Steering
   technique (signal steering) by monitoring the RF link performance and uses
   a closed group of predictive algorithms to select the best antenna
   radiation and pattern for superior performance. The technology works best
   with 802.11 ac devices and enables wireless signals to penetrate thick
   walls, ceilings and alike to reach further distances, where conventional
   routers cannot today."
   - Active antennas could mean more powerful Wi-Fi networks
   <https://gigaom.com/2015/02/17/active-antennas-could-mean-more-powerful-wi-fi-networks/>
   (GigaOm | Kevin Fitchard) "Ethertronics has designed the antenna technology
   that has gone into more than a billion mobile devices (if you own a Samsung
   Galaxy device chances are you're talking and surfing through an
   Ethertronics rig), but its active steering technology hasn't yet made it
   into a mobile device, though it is engaged in several trials with carriers.
   [Chief Scientist Jeff] Shamblin, however, thinks that that the technology
   stands a good shot in the Wi-Fi market as we increasingly hook more devices
   into home wireless networks from TVs and stereos, to wearables and smart
   home appliances."
   - Ethertronics goes for WiFi
   <http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/design/communications/ethertronics-goes-wifi-2015-03/>
   (Electronics Weekly | David Manners) "The technology allows three physical
   antenna to act as 12 virtual antenna. 'We take one antenna and by changing
   the radiation pattern of the antenna we can generate multiple radiation
   patterns from a single antenna,' [COO Vahid] Manian told EW. Beam steering,
   by sampling and switching between the multiple radiation patterns, selects
   the antenna radiation pattern that provides the best RF link performance.
   This delivers, says the company, improvements in range, data throughput,
   interference reduction, robustness in multipath environments, and
   connection reliability."
   - Wi-Fi beam-steering tech could kill off fixed home networks
   <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/20/ethertronics_rf_wifi_beamsteering_could_kill_fixed_home_networks/>
   (Faultline [via The Register] | Peter White) "The system also comes with
   some predictive algorithms so that once it has worked out which is the best
   way to deliver a particular signal, it gets better at finding the most
   effective radiation pattern more immediately. The company already sees
   future markets for active antennas in hospitals, inventory tracking,
   traffic control, car-to-car control, metering, cameras and Internet of
   Things sensors."

 *Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - Reconfigurable printed antennas.
   <http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=8aa533fa-9e71-455c-b63c-d0b9117f9973%40sessionmgr198&vid=0&hid=106&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=90439817>
   (*IETE Journal of Research*, July/Aug. 2013, p383-391 | Manoj S.
   Parihar, Ananjan Basu, and Shiban K. Koul)
   - Self-matched high-Q reconfigurable antenna concept for mobile
   terminals.
   <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=f4e9a09e-8e0e-42c0-8c67-42500520a5fc%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4209&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=100008643>
   (*IET Science, Measurement & Technology*, 2014, p479-486 | Pevand
   Bahramzy, Ole Jagielski, Simon Svendsen, and Gert F. Pedersen)
   - Multi-band reconfigurable antenna for mobile handset applications.
   <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=d75afd01-7daa-4a27-b406-49712e8f8c1d%40sessionmgr4001&vid=0&hid=4209&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=101613893>
   (*IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation*, 2014, p864-871 | Sung Youngje)

    ------------------------------
The *OPLIN 4cast* is a weekly compilation of recent headlines, topics, and
trends that could impact public libraries. You can subscribe to it in a
variety of ways, such as:

   - *RSS feed.* You can receive the OPLIN 4cast via RSS feed by
   subscribing to the following URL:
   http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?feed=rss2.
   - *Live Bookmark.* If you're using the Firefox web browser, you can go
   to the 4cast website (http://www.oplin.org/4cast/) and click on the
   orange "radio wave" icon on the right side of the address bar. In Internet
   Explorer 7, click on the same icon to view or subscribe to the 4cast RSS
   feed.
   - *E-mail.* You can have the OPLIN 4cast delivered via e-mail (a'la
   OPLINlist and OPLINtech) by subscribing to the 4cast mailing list at
   http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/OPLIN4cast.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.oplin.org/pipermail/oplin4cast/attachments/20150401/2d46b2a1/attachment.html>