comparison between ceramic/chip antenna and PCB antennas

[pragash sangaran]

hi friends,
i would like to know the comparison between ceramic/chip antenna and PCB antennas in terms of RF performance (gain, efficiency, range and etc). This antennas are for Wireless technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and Zigbee. which antenna is better and why?

 

[Tony Stewart]

words are not enough to describe differences except ceramic is very low loss tangent dielectric.

 

[pragash sangaran]

even PCB antenna loss tangent is low (0.01) so there wont be significant performance difference due to this i believe.

 

[Tony Stewart]

It depends on PCB dielectric greatly. If you said Rogers or Polyamide FR4 then I would not have made the valid comment.

Ceramic is also stiffer and etching and laser trimming is more precise for improved RL at resonance.

I have had experiences in GETEK and ceramic RF hybrids to support this. GETEK is OK but often needs manual foil trim for high Q.


Perhaps the biggest variable in PCB dielectrics is the >10% tolerance on dielectric constant.