Consumers' hunger for more functions in a single handheld device has led to the inevitable: one antenna design that can command almost all the wireless signals that anyone can throw at it (see the story below on Antenova). For a handheld or mobile device, of course, size is everything, so such an antenna saves on the use (and volume) of multiple antennas, as well as the cost of fabricating a handset with multiple antennas.
Antenova is not alone in the race to cover more bandwidth with innovative antenna design approaches. Antenna designers are exploring new multiple-array approaches and novel structures and printed-circuit designs not just for commercial applications, but in surveillance, signal intelligence (SIGINT), and electronic-warfare (EW) applications in military systems. And the growth of a once seemingly dead wireless technology, WiMAX, is further pressing demands for small antennas that can cover a host of frequency bands. More to come in the pages of Microwaves & RF in 2010!