Antenova Raptor positioning antenna

The latest positioning antenna from Antenova, known as Raptor, is designed to achieve a high level of accuracy in the GNSS bands, pinpointing location to within centimetres.

The embedded antenna is particularly suitable for emerging applications with autonomous vehicles, drones and other mobile devices where its enhanced positioning capability can, for example, indicate which side of the road a vehicle is on — which has not generally been possible with previous GNSS devices. It will also be useful for applications in tracking, surveying and mapping.

The antenna operates in the 1200 and 1600 MHz GNSS satellite bands and is suitable for all global public constellations: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou. It supports the L2 1200 MHz band in addition to the existing L1 and L5 bands.

It is a single-feed antenna in compact SMD form, measuring 16 x 8 x 1.7 mm, making it a practical choice for small electronic designs such as wearables and portable devices where space on the PCB may be restricted. It provides the high performance of a larger ceramic patch antenna but in an ultra low profile size, which means designers can create small devices that will correctly pinpoint location.

The addition of the L2 frequency band combines multiband satellite signal reception and GNSS correction data. This helps to mitigate position errors, greatly improving accuracy, especially in urban areas.

The antenna has been designed to fit easily into a PCB, alongside other components, and is supplied in tape and reel. It requires a corresponding high-precision GNSS receiver module to connect the antenna in a complete RF system.