The company claims its approach, dubbed High Dielectric Antenna (HDA) and relying on novel ceramic materials where the dielectric itself radiates signals, 'effectively tears up the rulebook for antenna design'. The result of three years of R&D, the directional antennas allow sizes to shrink dramatically and to be mounted very close together -- to within millimeters of each other on PCBs.

"We have been operating secretively about our technology for the last couple of years, but since our discussions with partners are now such that they are ready to announce products, we have decided to come out of the closet. Some people have speculated we have been working on chip antennas, but that is not the case. What we are offering with our HDA stems from a unique understanding and application of high dielectric antennas, the shapes, materials and driving procedures that are needed to achieve the required propagation patterns and nulls and the push for smaller sizes", said Colin Ribton, director of projects at Antenova.

He maintains this contrasts with conventional antenna technology that typically requires larger components, that cannot be co-located so close together, that often are only about 30% efficient and are easily detuned by the environments in which they operate. "In our solution, all the radiation comes off the ceramic. We have used recently devised simulation techniques to understand how this radiation works and how we can optimize and utilize it for use in a variety of wireless applications".

Ribton says the high dielectric antennas are 95% efficient and can operate at frequencies of 'tens of GHz'. "They are also the ideal way to design antenna diversity into a whole range of wireless products, which is going to be crucial for higher data rate applications on cellphones and for allowing operators to increase capacity. Several silicon manufacturers are looking to provide diversity combination and our technology should be complementary to their efforts". One such company that has gone public with its DSP-based solution is Los Angeles, California based start-up Innovics, and Ribton says he is aware of at least five others that are working on diversity gain but are still in stealth mode.

Another alternative to achieving higher data rates by transmitting on the same frequency on several antennas simultaneously is Multiple Input-Multiple Output (MIMO) and companies such as Lucent Technologies and Motorola have recently announced their approach to antenna diversity.

Ribton maintains Antenova's antennas will be about a tenth the size of conventional devices. Near field is virtually contained within the antenna, whereas conventional antennas have near-fields of typically a wavelength. The HDA approach adds another degree of design flexibility, and cost reduction, by eliminating some external componentry. For instance antennas can be made extremely narrowband by selection of resonant mode, and it is possible to eliminate passband filters. This will become an important consideration in, for instance, providing GPS and Bluetooth features in next generation mobile phones.

To complement the practical know-how on HDA technology, Antenova has developed a toolsuite, including simulator, that allows antennas to be developed quickly to suit a client's specific requirements.

Ribton stresses the main focus will be on the cellphone market, just because of the volumes involved. "We have strong relationships with the top 8 handset makers, some of whom are already evaluating our technology. We hope to be able to announce a production contract with at least one of these next year", said Ribton.

However, versions of the antenna for WLANs are likely to hit the market before this. Ribton said the company is also talking to network operators about use of the antenna in pico basestations that will increase cellular network capacity and offer higher data rate operation. Some of these operators are already running trials with low power antennas small enough to be mounted discreetly on or in such object as street lamps, phone booth roofs and telegraph poles.