The antenna is 10 times smaller than a standard off-the-shelf component, says e-peas, allowing more space in customers’ designs. It has been developed in conjunction with antenna manufacturer, Ignion, a company which specializes in chip antennas, based on Virtual Antenna technology, called antenna boosters. The small antenna is suitable for a variety of industrial applications including building automation, smart metering, asset tracking and other logistics applications.

The antenna can be used for any frequency band and for any device form factor with a proper matching network design, says the company. The antenna will allow harvesting of energy at all frequencies within the 0.4 to 10.6GHz range.

The company says this latest antenna will complement the company’s series of energy harvesting dedicated power management ICs.

Integrated alongside the AEM30940, AEM30330 or AEM30300 radio frequency ambient energy managers (AEMs), the antenna can capture energy from a distance of up to 17m when using a 1W source and up to 31m when using a 3W source. The antenana is orientation-independent, allowing energy to be captured from any direction.

The company will also add the antenna to its evaluation kits, allowing engineers to experiment with all the key elements, before ordering them in bundle pack with their AEMs. The antenna is optimised for pick-and-place manufacturing automation assembly, making it easy to install into all devices and keeping production cost down.

“By enabling predictable high RF performance in an easy to implement off-the-shelf component, Ignion and e-peas are lowering the entry barriers towards a more sustainable IoT industry,” comments Johan Pedersen, senior director of business development at Ignion.

e-peas is at CES, Las Vegas (5-7 January) booth 61225