Earlier this week Fractal Antenna Systems announced production of "the world's first wideband omnidirectional antenna in a shrunken profile." The announcement did not provide any details on the bandwidth of the antenna, but did note that both existing and future "UHF+" wireless needs could be met with one antenna. It also said that the antenna will be available "at a fraction of the cost of other solutions." The company said that potential users included WiMax systems, public safety radios, DAS, Wifi, 3G/4G, pico/femtocell, and "many others."
Fractal Antenna Systems combined its fractal antenna technology with metamaterials to produce an antenna in a slim, short tube form factor that it said "allows unobtrusive placement in public areas."
I couldn't find any information on this antenna, called "UADB", on Fractal Antenna Systems web site but brochures are available for the larger UAB antenna, which covers from just above 225 MHz to 6 GHz and its smaller variant, the UAD, which works on frequencies from 400 MHz to 6 GHz.
For some background on Fractal Antenna System's work with metamaterials, see Fractal Metamaterial Monopole Antenna: The Metaclock Monopole.
Fractal's press release said additional variants of the UADB antenna can be tailored for specific customer needs. I'd like to see one for VHF TV reception.
In other metamaterial news, Rayspan announced it was awarded its second fundamental metamaterial air interface patent. Rayspan said its air interface technologies enable "ultra-compact implementations for broadband and multi-band antennas, filters, couplers, diplexers, and duplexers and are applicable to all wireless LAN and cellular handset applications."
Rayspan's founder and CTO, Dr. Maha Achour, is organizing a workshop on the topic Friday, May 28, at the International Microwave Symposium being held this week at the Anaheim Convention Center.
