Antenna matching is an interesting challenge. As more bands need to be handled simultaneously, the challenge amplifies. With their surface-mount antenna family, TE conductivity provides circuit designers with an easy-to-deploy alternative.

Modern Wi-Fi is a work of art. Standards such as Wi-Fi 6 use a wide variety of wireless bands to avoid congested parts of the wireless spectrum. This puts demands on the antenna geometry---if multiple frequency bands need to be covered, the antenna needs to provide reliable RF performance on all of them.

High-Quality RF Parameters for Strong Signal Reception

Antenna quality is of significant importance for customer satisfaction. In the case of the 2118908-1, the data sheet shows high quality in RF parameters - in particular, the diagrams below provide information about transmission and reception efficiency. This leads to good signal quality and satisfied customers.

Carefully looking at the various supported frequency bands reveals that the part supports the 6 GHz band, which was introduced in the Wi-Fi 6E version of the standard. In addition, the antenna can handle Bluetooth and Zigbee connections---these wireless protocols are commonly used in all kinds of industrial electronics.

In terms of azimuth planes, the 2118908-1 is direction-independent. This means that the orientation between the IoT device and the router is not significant for the connection quality, which remains high in all orientations.

Directly Solderable to 50-Ohm Feed Lines

Connecting antennas to transmitters is often a tricky challenge. In the case of the TE 2118908-1, the antenna mounts directly to the printed circuit board. For data transmission, a 50-ohm transmission line similar to the one shown in the figure below is used.

Antenna placement is uncritical. However, like all PCB antennas, RF performance is greatly improved by the availability of a sufficiently large ground plane. Furthermore, a keep-out area around the antenna is recommended---it ensures that the PCB substrate does not interfere with the wireless signals going into and coming out of the PCB antenna. Fortunately, TE Connectivity provides geometry information in the component's datasheet, which we reprint in the figure below for convenience.

Conclusion

TE Connectivity provides a turnkey solution if a Wi-Fi 6 multi-band antenna is needed. Once soldered to the PCB, the component is ready to go, and no advanced RF operations are needed. This leads to a significant reduction in product development costs---in short, a product that always deserves consideration and recommendation if a Wi-Fi 6 antenna is needed. The product's capability to support Zigbee and Bluetooth adds additional value.