You’ve undoubtedly noticed, with pleasure, that the telescoping, whip antenna of yore has long ago disappeared inside the increasingly sleek device you slip into your pocket. Technology is supposed to be invisible.
Out-of-sight, out-of-mind is fine for the consumer, blissfully unaware of the complexity of their handset. But one of the primary active components-the embedded, wireless antenna-is under intense pressure, as are the companies that create them.
As phones include multiple modes, multiple frequency bands and related connectivity with GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and offer advanced services via high-speed data, the antenna must evolve as well-while shrinking in size, cost and power demand.
“The antenna is very much like the tires on a car,” said Craig Mathias, analyst with Farpoint Group. “Cars are complicated and have a zillion parts. But the only part that touches the medium upon which it operates is the tire. If you change tires, it changes the way the car feels when you drive it. Same is true with the antenna.”
“You have to be careful in matching the antenna to the frequency or frequencies you’re using,” Mathias continued. “It must be electrically compatible with other components. The pricing must be appropriate. That can be a difficult engineering decision.”
“Isolation” is one key mantra in the antenna component space. Antennas need precious room-or properties that can mimic elbow room-to optimize the strength of the incoming signal for the many and diverse actions that signal must drive. “Diversity” is another mantra-main antennas now have a second, backup antenna to ensure that high-speed data transmissions are received intact for a smooth consumer experience.
Pressure mounting
These technical pressures and the limited number of large handset vendors to create demand mean the antenna space is ultra-competitive and fragmented, Mathias added.
Compounding the competitive landscape is the fact that several of the top vendors have in-house engineering efforts to design their own antennas, made by volume vendors without their own intellectual property. Other original equipment manufacturers that do not create their own designs go to antenna specialists and, in the ruthless pursuit of cost management, bid out their business on a handset-by-handset basis. Two American antenna competitors, for instance-SkyCross and Ethertronics-both serve Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., now the world’s second-largest handset vendor. Among antenna makers with strong engineering stables and IP portfolios, some are part of larger, diverse conglomerates such as Laird Technologies; some are more pure play, akin to SkyCross and Ethertronics.
The upshot: the antenna space is splitting in two. Volume manufacturers that serve the entry-tier handset segment in emerging markets use their own or OEMs’ designs and compete on price and volume. The advent of smartphones and feature phones, however, create demand for antennas that can deliver the performance and size requirements dictated by advanced data services, sleek form factors and multi-band, multi-mode, multi-connectivity environments. The latter space is served by a relatively small number of players-some large, entrenched public companies; some smaller-but-rapidly growing private firms-with significant engineering talent and IP portfolios.
“The rate of innovation remains high,” Mathias said. “The wireless space itself is hot and it’s attracting investment dollars.”
Mathias added that the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction will require antenna innovation. Others, particularly among the IP-rich antenna companies, point to the advent of WiMAX technology and other product categories that will stimulate innovation in the space.
The competitive landscape, the fragmented market and the private nature of market players makes market share hard to calculate accurately, according to analysts and the antenna companies themselves. One source guess-timated that the single largest player might claim as much as 15% share.
The trend among U.S. companies that produce wireless antennas is to locate design centers in markets where they closely integrate their product with the entire contents of a specific phone model for key customers. And manufacturing must, by necessity, take place in cheap labor markets such as China.
SkyCross
For privately held SkyCross, headquartered in Viera, Florida, for example, that means building three design centers in Korea to serve “intimate partners” Samsung and Pantech and three in China to serve ZTE Corp. and others. SkyCross’ antennas are used in Samsung’s BlackJack smartphone and Juke music phone. The company’s patented “meander line” technology is one of its secret sauces.
“There’s a growing realization that the antenna really matters,” said Chris Morton, CEO of SkyCross. “New services place more pressure on antenna performance.”
Given the intense demands of the high-end phone market and other product lines, both existing and emerging, the future is bright albeit fiercely competitive, Morton said. SkyCross’ output is about 50% focused on antennas for mobile handsets, with the other 50% spread across antennas for other product lines.
Morton called the quest for antenna performance “a deadly serious game” in light of carriers’ billion-dollar investments in their networks and revenue-generating services, and the advent of WiMAX and other wireless innovations that may well crack open new markets.
Ethertronics
Rick Segil, VP for strategic marketing at Ethertronics, said his rapidly growing company’s success is due to its design wins with Samsung, Symbol (think FedEx handhelds) and the top five handset OEMs, which supply more than 80% of the global market.
The pressures on antennas-smaller devices, advanced services and little change in battery technology or output-run exactly counter to the properties that antennas need, Segil said.
“We’ve been talking about isolation since the era of single antennas,” Segil said. “There’s more interest in our technology now that handsets require four or five antennas.”
The company’s “isolated magnetic dipole” technology earned it design wins in Samsung’s Ultra Edition I and II product lines. That technology will be complemented by the company’s newest line of ceramic antennas that, according to Segil, require only one-fifth the volume of prior technologies.
Segil said that at the crossroads ahead for antenna makers, one fork will lead to high-volume, low-cost units for emerging markets and traveling the other fork will require a potent pool of engineers and strong IP portfolios. Ethertronics will focus on the latter for smartphones and feature phones, he said.
“Our differentiators are that we can handle thin and complex, multiple radios and stringent isolation requirements,” Segil said.
