Isolated Magnetic Dipole (IMD) antennas from Ethertronics have been integrated into Samsung’s SGH-D900 and SGH-D830 “Ultra-slim” handsets. These embedded antennas improve RF performance in constrained form factors. They can also enhance handset safety by radiating most of the transmitted RF energy away from the handset user.

IMD technology has been designed to confine the current flow on the antenna element and optimize its isolation to deliver higher performance in a small form factor with minimal SAR emissions. With this design, multiple antennas for cellular, mobile TV reception, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and WiMAX are easily integrated with fewer constraints and greater function.

According to Rick Segil, vice president of marketing for Ethertronics, IMD technology also enables designers to comply with the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act, which is meant to ensure that new handsets eliminate interference that can generate objectionable tones within a user’s hearing aid. Segil also stated IMD technology can be implemented in virtually all wireless applications.

Compared to more commonly used Planar Inverted-F Antennas (PIFAs), IMD-based antennas operate with higher efficiency in smaller space with fewer ground plane hotspots. In addition to cellular main antennas, Ethertronics also offers a 1.5 GHz antenna for GPS, which can enable E911 functionality, as well as 2.4 GHz units for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi peripherals.

In a PIFA structure, currents can flow in the entire PC board ground plane, which reduces efficiency and widens the lobes of the transmitted RF. The ground plane currents of IMD technology are confined to the region directly beneath the antenna structure. Confining the ground plane currents also enables directionality in IMD technology, allowing much of the transmitted RF energy to be directed away from the handset user, as shown in the figure.

With IMD technology, the Samsung SGH-D900 and SGH-D830 are able to perform a variety of applications via a slim form factor. Weighing only 85 grams, and measuring just 103.5 mm x 51 mm x 12.9 mm, the Samsung SGH-D900 GPRS slider phone includes a three-megapixel camera with flash and digital zoom, 60 MB of built-in memory, as well as the capability to exchange photos via Bluetooth, multimedia message service (MMS) and USB. The quad-band phone is both WAP- and Java-enabled and includes a video recorder and player and several more advanced features integrated into a single device. The 9.9 mm thin SGH-D830 is a tri-band, EDGE/GPRS wireless phone that includes a two-megapixel camera with digital zoom, video recorder and player. In the offline mode, the Samsung SGH-D830 enables users to continue to work on their phone. In addition, the phone’s TV-Out option allows users to transmit files via an analog video signal to a PC or television.

Unlike PIFA antennas, IMD antennas can direct a significant portion of the transmitted RF energy away from the handset user.

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