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Antenna Spectral Control Technology
Patent Issued: Spectral control antenna apparatus and method, US 7,064,723, (20 June, 2005). A continuation-in-part is pending.
Description: Next-RF's antenna spectral control technology opens many new degrees of freedom for antenna designers trying to sculpt a particular spectral response for a UWB system. Next-RF's approach is particularly useful for implementing low pass filter responses that keep harmful high power signals above the antenna's operating band out of the RF front end.
Value: Now that UWB antennas and systems are entering the mainstream of antenna engineering, antenna designers are faced with the novel problem of making an antenna meet specific spectral goals. This patent claims a very basic technique that will be fundamental to any systematic effort to specifically design a spectral response into an antenna.
For additional information, please see the following excerpt from:
H. Schantz, The Art and Science of UWB Antennas, pp. 283-285.
Patent Issued: Nano-antenna apparatus and method US 7,068,225 (June 27, 2006). A continuation-in-part and a PCT application are pending.
Description: Next-RF's nano-antenna technology enables creation of extremely small UWB transmit devices by using a device enclosure as an antenna.
Value: The nano-antenna concept is a basic way to maximize the size and efficiency of an antenna by making the device enclosure itself serve as the antenna. The specific scheme described is well-suited for impulse radiating UWB micro-sensor devices but the concept could be extended for a wide variety of UWB applications.
For additional information, please see the following technical article:
H. Schantz, "Nano-antennas: a concept for efficient electrically small UWB devices," Proceedings of the International Conference on UWB, 2005
UWB Angle-of-Arrival Technology
Patent Issued: System and method for ascertaining angle of arrival of an electromagnetic signal, US 6,950,064 (27 Sep, 2005). A continuation-in-part is pending.
Description: Next-RF's UWB AoA technology allows even an electrically small UWB antenna system to acquire angle-of-arrival information. Applications include interference mitigation, location awareness, and in a "spatial rake" receiver system.
Value: The angle-or-arrival system claimed in this patent is one of the most basic ways in which “smart” antenna technology can be applied to UWB systems. The specification further describes using angle-of-arrival concepts for:
“Spatial-Rake” Signal Processing: coherently combining multi-path signals arriving from different directions.
Interference Mitigation: nulling out interfering signals based upon their angle of arrival.
Location Awareness: a UWB locator receiver that measures both angle and time-of-arrival, or differential-time-of-arrival.
For additional information, please see the following technical article:
H. Schantz,
"Smart Antennas for Spatial Rake UWB Systems,"
IEEE APS Symposium 2004 Proceedings
Electric-Magnetic Antenna Technology
Patent Publication: Broadband electric-magnetic antenna apparatus and method, US2005/0162332, (28 Jul, 2005).
Description: Next-RF's electric-magnetic antenna apparatus combines an electric and a magnetic broadband element in order to achieve a significant reduction in size and yield a compact UWB antenna system.
Status: The USPTO has published Next-RF's application (28 Jul, 2005). The PCT application has published as WO/2005/070022 (4 Aug, 2005).
Several additional patents are pending and will be presented here soon!
Inquiries: h.schantz@ieee.org