Taoglas, a provider of automotive, IoT and GNSS antenna products, has announced its launch of Axiom, a reference design for a low-profile, compact multiple-antenna solution for the next generation of Connected Cars. The reference design is to help automobile manufacturers overcome what Taoglas has identified as one of the biggest challenges of the Connected Car: where and how to place the multitude of antennas needed for maximum performance.
As many as 18 antennas will be needed to power the next-generation Connected Car, the company said. This includes multiple cellular antennas for network connectivity; Wi-Fi for hotspot connectivity; GNSS for navigation, emergency call systems and other location-based technologies; satellite radio; AM/FM antennas; radar antennas for object detection; Bluetooth antennas for smartphones and other devices; and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) antennas for vehicle-to-vehicle/infrastructure applications.
It can be extremely challenging to figure out how to locate these antennas in a vehicle in close proximity to each other and additional electronics systems while minimizing interference and maximizing performance.
Manufacturers also need to take into consideration both ease of installation and assembly, and antenna size to determine how they would best work with the vehicle’s aesthetics. Taoglas has worked with the automotive industry for more than a decade, providing antenna solutions to many of the major tier 1 automobile OEMs across the globe. The Axiom reference design incorporates Taoglas’ experience to make this roadmap as useful as possible for automobile manufacturers and help them more quickly advance antenna configurations that work for their particular makes and models.
“Getting that many antennas to work efficiently in a small space at a competitive cost is the number one challenge for the RF teams of automobile manufacturers,” said Dermot O’Shea, co-CEO, Taoglas. “While every car manufacturer will require a slightly different solution, having a multi-antenna reference design to work from allows them to see what they can do in terms of placement and size, and how that impacts performance—all without waiting months for a custom solution to test. They can take the prototype and test it in the field to prove out concepts. Using Taoglas’ Axiom reference design allows them move more quickly to market with solutions that work. We can also work with Tier 1 OEMs to integrate the elements of the Axiom antenna reference design quickly and efficiently directly onto the board of their telematic control units, achieving highest radiated power and sensitivity, while minimizing project time, cost and size, all in one single package.”