Pasternack Blog

Antennas are the basic components and devices used to convert electromagnetic signals traveling through free space to a conductive environment via waveguides and transmission lines. Antennas can be as simple as a single exposed conductor or as complicated as modern active/advanced antenna systems (AAS) with hundreds of individual antenna elements and active electronics driving each ..

Many of the latest Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems make use of multiple forms of wireless communication. In some cases, a single IoT module may be equipped with several wireless communication standards for various functions. For high bandwidth connections to infrastructure, cellular communications modules are common. For extremely high bandwidth and short range, or confined operation within ..

In reality, all types of RF antennas have some degree of directionality. However, there are certain antenna designs and types that are particularly directional compared to other antenna types. A Directional Antenna is useful in applications where it is desirable to receive a signal from a specific direction of origin or otherwise transmit a signal ..

An Antenna Downtilt and Coverage Calculator, or Antenna Tilt Calculator, aids the user by providing an approximate downward angle at which to install a directional antenna to reach desired signal strength and coverage between a transmitter and receiver at different heights and some distance away. An example use case is when a cell-tower directional transceiver ..

Electromagnetic (EM) Antennas are an essential component for virtually all transmission and reception systems that operate in the RF, microwave, millimeter-wave (mmW), and terahertz (THz) frequency ranges. Another way to look at EM Antennas, is that these antennas can be designed to convert conducted EM signals to radiated EM signals, and vice versa, from kilohertz ..

Metamaterials are an increasingly researched topic, especially where it pertains to modern antenna structures. However, there is a lot of confusion of exactly what metamaterials are and how they are involved in the development of antennas. To put it simply, metamaterials are material and structure combinations that exhibit properties that are otherwise unknown to occur ..

Beamforming as a Buzzword Beamforming is used for directional signal transmission and reception with the versatility to change both amplitude and phase to help regulate power needs and steer the beam in the intended direction. Bandwidth from 6 to 100 GHz, or millimeter Wave (mmWave), is likely an integral part of future mobile broadband as ..

In array antennas, beamforming, also known as spatial filtering, is a signal processing technique used to transmit or receive radio or sound waves in a directional signal. Beamforming applications are found in radar and sonar systems, wireless communications, and in acoustics and biomedicine equipment. Beamforming and beam scanning are generally accomplished by phasing the feed ..