Antenna boost for satellite phones and IoT
UK startup Helix Geospace has developed the world’s smallest antenna tuned for Iridium satellite services, which can operate safely near the human head with minimal performance degradation. This can be used for mobile handsets, wearable trackers and personal safety devices as well as sensor nodes and terminals in the Internet of thigs (IoT).
The HXDC1600 antenna measures 37mm long and 13.5mm in diameter and is the smallest available antenna that meets the Iridium satellite data network’s voice and short-burst data (SBD) requirements. This is built with Helix’s proprietary Dielectrix that allows satellite phones to be built at close to the size and form factor of a normal smart mobile phone.
The DielectriX technology uses a rugged high dielectric constant material with multiple helical filaments on its surface to make a self-filtering resonant antenna that is immune to adjacent-band interference, electrical and common-mode noise. Key capabilities of DielectriX antennas are their ability to discriminate true satellite signals from multi-path signals, mitigate against interference and jamming, and deliver high performance in a compact and rugged form factor.
The antenna can also be mounted on vehicles, marine craft and aircraft, and for critical infrastructure applications where it is integrated into computer systems.
“Right now IoT is driving increased demand for short burst data over the Iridium satellite network, with applications including logistics and asset tracking, and monitoring of critical infrastructure and transportation links. There is also a healthy defence and security market for our products,” said James Lewis, CEO of Helix.
The company raised a seed round of $3m in December 2021 to develop future antenna variants will support LEO (low earth orbit) services being planned and built by private companies as well as government agencies.
“We started manufacturing DielectriX antennas using state of the art laser/robotics equipment developed in-house, and we are now set to scale up rapidly through partnerships with electronics manufacturing service providers in the UK,” said Lewis. “Future manufacturing growth plans will roll out our ‘factory-in-a-box’ to deliver global capability required to meet the expected demands for autonomous vehicles and systems where absolute resilience and precision of location data is essential for safety.”
Samples of the Iridium antennas are available now, with packaging options including IP67 overmould-protected variants for externally mounted applications, or in-enclosure variants that are designed to be housed within a customer-designed enclosure.
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