WiFi/Bluetooth Chip Antenna Solutions for IoT Medical Devices

Researchers and electronics engineers across the globe are working to find new ways to support the healthcare industry in combating the COVID-19 disease. Abracon has seen rapid customer demand for parts for critical medical equipment such as ventilators, clinical testing devices and patient monitors.

The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing needs for both wired and wireless connectivity solutions, and IoT devices for digital diagnostics and medical monitoring remain at the immediate forefront of discussion.

More than 50 percent of electronic designs include antennas that support WiFi/Bluetooth because these protocols are ideal for short range networking and device-to-device communications. WiFi/BT chip antennas serve as unique solutions for devices aimed at allowing medical professionals to wirelessly monitor patients from a safe distance.

For example, Bluetooth transmits health-related data from smart monitoring devices, such as glucose meters or smart watches, to a WiFi-enabled IoT device that sends diagnostic information to a medical provider via the Cloud.

Chip antennas provide selectivity and better efficiency benefits. They offer less sensitivity to PCB design changes than PCB trace antennas, so different design configurations are possible.

The following WiFi/Bluetooth chip antenna collection showcases the most compact, highest gain and lowest profile selections available for industrial, scientific and medical ISM applications. Dual-band and combinational options are also featured. Ideal applications include wearables, motion monitoring systems, wireless integrated medical devices, telemedicine and a variety of biomedical sensors.

ACAG0301-2450-T

• Most common package size of 3.2 x 1.6mm, is cost competitive and has high gain (5.19 dBi)
• Provides higher performance specifications for applications needing higher gain, a wider operating temperature and lower VSWR potential
• Supports the WiFi, Bluetooth and ISM protocols
• Ideal for wearable monitoring, smart medical testing devices, telemedicine 

ACAG0201-2450-T

• The most compact, low profile solution that also maintains a high gain
• Requires only small GND clearance and GND plane
• Supports the WiFi, Bluetooth, BLE and ISM protocols at 2.4GHz
• Ideal for ultra-compact Wearables and other space constrained medical IoT devices

ACAR0301-SW2

• A low profile solution that supports size-constrained designs requiring dual-band coverage
• Supports the ISM, Bluetooth and dual-band 2.4/5.5 GHz WiFi protocols
• Ideal for Broadband connectivity, drones, telemedicine and Wearables

ACAG0301-24505500-T

• A high gain solution that supports ISM, Bluetooth and 2.4/5.5 GHz WiFi
• Well suited for designs that require high gain and dual-band coverage
• Ideal for point-of-care testing equipment, broadband connectivity, drones and AR/VR

ACAR3005-C2WB

• A combination antenna that supports LoRa (868, 915 MHz), NB-IoT (824,960 MHz), 2.4 GHz WiFi, Bluetooth and ISM coverage
• Allows long-range patient monitoring applications, supports group-level network monitoring and extends battery life of devices
• Requires significantly less input power than other chip solutions, offering up to 60% and 55% efficiency rates at 791 MHz and 824 MHz while having a wide band response between 698 MHz - 960 MHz and 824 MHz – 960 MHz, 2400 MHz – 2500 MHz
• Ideal solution for daily remote monitoring, patient tracking, asset tracking, temperature monitoring devices and other network devices

ACAG0301-15752450-T

• A high gain combination antenna that supports GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and ISM applications
  
• Supports patient monitoring and social distance tracking
• Ideal applications include fitness trackers, patient tracking, surgical robotics and intelligent patient beds

Abracon offers evaluation boards for all of its chip antenna solutions. The evaluation boards come with the chip antenna embedded along with matching network and a standard SMA for connectivity. It allows engineers to test the antenna performance in their end application by directly plugging the EVB without considering the chip antenna layout details and matching on the end board.

Visit Abracon’s parametric system to learn more about the available chip antennas and evaluation boards. View the Interactive Antenna Catalog to see Abracon’s full range of wireless connectivity solutions.