Taoglas announced the first three antennas in its Extensis range of narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) antennas, including the world’s smallest ceramic NB-IoT antenna that covers Bands 5, 8 and 20 simultaneously with a single matching configuration, and an ultra-thin, flexible multiband antenna that supports all LTE bands—including the new Band 71 that will be used for NB-IoT in the U.S. The antennas are specifically designed to provide device manufacturers cost-effective global reach and high efficiency in a small form factor as they develop NB-IoT solutions. Taoglas will showcase the Extensis NB-IoT antennas at Mobile World Congress Americas (Stand S.2606), September 12-14, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The low-profile, highly efficient NCP.5820 is a NB-IoT ceramic surface mount multiband antenna that supports Bands 8 (880-960 MHz) and 20 (791-862 MHz), as well as Band 5 (824-894 MHz) to allow IoT devices—such as asset trackers—to work across different regions and different carriers. Its low profile (2mm) and small footprint (14.1mm x 8.3mm) make it the world’s smallest NB-IoT antenna.

The NCP.5820 is designed with the patent-pending Taoglas Boost technology, which delivers up to a 2 dB improvement in antenna performance when integrated into small devices. Taoglas Boost is particularly suited to designs with shorter ground planes, allowing IoT and other device designers to bring to market a wider range of smaller devices that would otherwise not have been able to meet certain stringent carrier certification requirements.

Another Extensis antenna, the NCS.5820, is a surface-mount onboard antenna that also supports Bands 5, 8 and 20. Its low-profile (1.6mm) and small footprint (11mm x 20mm) allows the NCS.5820 to be integrated into even the smallest of IoT devices. As it is a larger antenna, it demonstrates higher efficiency, and Taoglas Boost is also available with this antenna, and any Taoglas onboard antenna.

The third antenna in the Extensis range is the patent-pending FXUB64 flexible ultrawideband antenna, which has been designed for all working frequencies in the 600-3000 MHz spectrum, covering all Cellular, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, ISM and AGPS, including LTE Band 71. The ultra-thin

(130mm x 20mm x 30*0.2mm) polymer antenna is delivered with a flexible peel-and-stick body with excellent efficiencies on all bands. Taoglas is the world’s first to include LTE Band 71 in an off-the-shelf cellular antenna product. The antenna is compliant to T-Mobile’s new 600MHz over-the-air (OTA) requirements when properly integrated into the customer’s device.

Service providers around the world are rolling out NB-IoT network upgrades to support the growing demand to connect IoT devices to support a variety of applications, ranging from bicycle tracking and parking in urban environments to water management to smart metering in remote locations. NB-IoT delivers a wealth of benefits to end users, including low-date-rate transmission, low-power to extend battery life, extended coverage in challenging environments, proven LTE-based security mechanisms, and the ability to support a massive number of connections.

Taoglas supports these benefits by providing highly efficient, low-cost, easy to integrate, reliable antennas in a very small form factor that are suitable across a range of NB-IoT and LPWA (LoRa, Sigfox and ISM) devices and applications.

“Narrowband IoT is emerging as a go-to LPWAN option for applications that need to support a large number of devices, especially in challenging environments such as indoors or underground,” said Ronan Quinlan, co-CEO, Taoglas. “The incredibly low profiles and small footprints of the Extensis antennas along with their multiband capabilities make them an excellent choice for device designers who need to shrink their devices without sacrificing performance. Having access to three bands on one antenna also allows them to plan for global deployments.”