iMAT, the WiFi/Blutooth combo antenna for netbooks

VIERA, USA: SkyCross, an antenna designer and manufacturer for mobile phone, home entertainment, and computing industries, announced the launch of iMAT, a solution that enables Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to operate simultaneously in netbooks.

Because 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth operate at 2.4 GHz, interference between the two RF signals previously made using both functions at the same time nearly impossible, particularly when the two antennas were in close proximity inside a device.

Wireless Network : Bluetooth vs Wi-Fi

Today’s chipsets and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo mini-cards are capable of supporting both operations simultaneously, so the antenna has been the industry’s roadblock. Now, iMAT from SkyCross is touted to be the industry’s first single-antenna solution that offers greater than 35 dB of isolation between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to enable coexistence even in compact devices such as netbooks.

Joe Gifford, VP, SkyCross, said: “Chip makers are very encouraged by this breakthrough, and manufacturers are already planning to use the SkyCross iMAT solution in their future products. Our antennas differentiate netbook brands by maximizing their connectivity range and enabling optimal simultaneous functionality at an equivalent price, which pleases consumers."

Netbook shipments are expected to double in 2009, going from 16.4 million to nearly 33 million units.1 Many netbooks shipping today are equipped with Bluetooth, so the coexistence challenge is particularly prominent in this growing segment.

Wireless Network : WIFI Technology Standards

iMAT can consolidate the number of antennas required in a device, reduce the specific absorption rate (SAR), eliminate RF components, and more. In this instance, iMAT enables a single antenna to have one feed dedicated to Wi-Fi and another feed shared with Bluetooth, which uses the chipset providers’ time-sharing and adaptive frequency hopping algorithms.

The very high, built-in isolation between the two feeds enables both to operate at the same time in a very small space. In addition, the iMAT single-antenna solution reduces the number of conventional antennas by a factor of three, which reduces antenna space and system cost in netbooks to facilitate supporting 3G features.