Mobile Antenna Solutions  

Intelligent antenna management plays a critical role in today's high performance smartphones, particularly with the onset of 5G and the addition of new functionality. In fact, the number of embedded antennas in mobile devices is increasing, while board space is being reduced to accommodate the adoption of full screen infinity displays and other features.

Skyworks' portfolio addresses this need to integrate more RF functionality into smaller and smaller form factors by offering innovative tuners, swaps and couplers that enable system engineers to optimize antenna power and efficiency.

Antenna Management Functions
Intelligent antenna solutions support three main functions: tuning, swapping, and RF coupling.

Tuning includes both aperture and impedance options, which have been shown to improve antenna gain by 1.5 to 3 dB and enhance battery life since less current is required to deliver the same output power.

Aperture tuning changes the electrical length of an antenna to shift its resonance to the desired frequency band of operation. This is achieved by locating the tuner on the antenna and using it to switch various passive components to attain the desired resonant frequency. Antenna aperture tuners improve the total radiated power (TRP) and total isotropic sensitivity (TIS) by increasing the effective size of an antenna or by altering its radiation pattern.

Impedance tuning aims to match the impedance of the antenna with the impedance of the RF front-end, thus, optimizing the power transfer to the antenna. This is accomplished by locating the tuner along the RF line feeding the antenna and switching various passive components to match the RF feed and antenna impedances. Successful matching improves TRP and TIS.

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Antenna Tuners

Aperture Tuning

Impedance Tuning

Swapping is utilized by system designers to steer the RF signals to the antenna that will provide the best performance. Selecting the antenna that delivers the best transmit power and receive sensitivity will greatly reduce the occurrence of dropped calls.

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Antenna Swaps

Antenna Swap

RF coupling
RF coupling is applied to sense the output power of the front-end and manage transmit power appropriately. RF couplers may also be used to measure reflected power in a closed loop system, thereby facilitating the impedance match between the front-end and the antenna to optimize power delivery to the antenna and improve battery life.

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RF Coupler

RF Coupler

Additional Mobile Solutions
In addition to our antenna portfolio for cellular applications, Skyworks offers a suite of transmit, receive and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® and GPS connectivity solutions that are addressing the increasing complexity of mobile devices.