Customising and optimising antennas with materials science and manufacturing techniques

In an increasingly connected world, performance demands on antennas are greater than ever. With wireless devices constantly shrinking, the antennas’ allowable size and weight is rapidly reducing, while demands for lower power consumption increase so that battery powered devices can last longer between charges.

In the latest Engineers' Insight, Martin Keenan investigates how these increased performance demands also have to be balanced with cost, and of course, the limits imposed by the laws of physics, which make antenna design a trade-off between performance attributes.