Ignion’s mXTEND propriety Virtual Antenna technology is the only non-resonant SMD antenna technology on the market. This disruptive solution uses the ground plane of the end product’s PCB to resonate, with a matching network determining the frequency operating range and tuning for your choice of multiple wireless protocols.
Aside from its compact nature, the key benefit of this technology is that, unlike many antenna solutions, the RF matching network can be easily changed to reduce frequency shifts and attenuations caused by the other components and the enclosure featured as part of the end product. This enables superior RF performance with significant space and weight savings over competing and external antennas, making Ignion’s devices a great fit for ultracompact IoT and asset tracking products, as well as Automotive, cellular, wearable, consumer/gaming, and smart metering applications.
All Ignion Virtual Antenna chips are made primarily from FR4 material and feature a linearly polarised omnidirectional output at 50 Ω, with SMD mounting and an operating temperature range from -40 to +125°C. The overall product range is illustrated in the table below with the following key specifications, as measured from their corresponding evaluation boards:
| Part name | NANO | ONE | DUO | TRIO | ALL | RUN |
| Size (L x W x H mm) | 3.0 x 2.0 x 0.8 | 7.0 x 3.0 x 1.0 | 7.0 x 3.0 x 2.0 | 30.0 x 3.0 x 1.0 | 24.0 x 12.0 x 2.0 | 12.0 x 3.0 x 2.4 |
| Number of antenna ports | 1 | 1 | 1 – 2 | 1 – 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Operating full range (MHz) | 2400 – 10600 | 800 – 10600 | 1561 – 10600 | 698 – 8000 | 698 – 8000 | 698 – 8000 |
| Operating best range (MHz) | 2400 – 2500 | 824 – 7125 | 1561 – 5875 | 698 – 3800 | 698 – 2690 | 824 – 5875 |
| Efficiency range (%) | 66.3 – 75.4 | 64.0 – 85.3 | 44.6 – 57.7 | 48.5 – 80.2 | 40.2 – 90.3 | 54.3 – 86.0 |
| Peak gain (dBi) | 2.4 | 4.1 | -0.9 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 2.8 |
| VSWR | <2.5:1 | <2.5:1 | <3:1 | <3:1 | <3:1 | <3:1 |
These antennas cover the following wireless protocols (model dependent):
- Bluetooth
- Wi-Fi incl. dual band, 5, 6, 6E, and 7
- UWB
- 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G
- NB-IoT
- LTE CAT-M
- Cellular IoT
- CBRS
- GNSS
- LoRa
- Sigfox
- Zigbee
- RFID
- ISM
- Thread
- Sidewalk
- Z-wave
- Matter
- Wi-Sun
Given the difficulty of good RF design and the novel nature of Ignion’s technology, its team of highly skilled RF engineers can also help customers develop their products for the very best RF performance, but the first point of call should be Ignion’s Oxion AI-enabled configuration tool.
Oxion enables engineers to set their frequency requirements and start their design journey from either a rectangular or circular PCB layout. Oxion then does all the hard work for recommending the best matching network components to implement Ignion’s technology in your design, with revision history enabled during development and easy export of simulated antenna performance.
Best of all, the AI design explorer – trained on years of Ignion’s own experience – enables real-time adjustments of the PCB layout and antenna placement with instant feedback on performance.
Ignion produces a number of evaluation boards based on the use case provided to them by a potential partner. For more information, fill out the form below, and ipXchange will put you in touch with Ignion for a consultation and sample.
