IoT Antenna Types OR IoT Antenna Topologies


This tutorial section on IoT (Internet of Things) covers following sub topics:
Main tutorial  IoT section  IoT article  Cellular IoT  Components  Sensors  INDIAN companies  Antenna Types  Wireless technologies  IoT transceiver  SoC 


Internet of Things(IoT) is a booming market. Day by day IoT modules are becoming smaller and demand for incorporating more than one wireless technologies is increasing. This has increased the demand for IoT antennas compliant to IoT modules.

IoT applications are widely used for consumer and industrial markets for varied purpose such as computations, sensing as well as connecting things within the region. In this page we will cover IoT antennas of various types. These IoT topologies will help IoT module designers make right choice of antenna.

The types of IoT antennas are chip, wire, whip, PCB and proprietary. Following table summarizes these antenna topologies.


IoT Antenna Type Description
Chip Antenna Best option for small form factors and for lower frequencies, good for large productions due to low reproducibility issues. Chip antennas have low efficiencies and low bandwidth compare to other IoT antennas at the same frequencies. They need external matching inspite of having internal matching circuitry. They are sensitive to geometries related to ground plane.
Wire Antenna requires electromagnetic simulation for best optimized design. The size of antenna increases based on decrease in the frequency, The prototype design of this antenna is very cost effective which helps in testing many versions during design and development of wire antenna.
Whip Antenna Costliest among all the IoT antenna type, highest performance and ideal when IoT module faces cosite issues due to multiple transceivers. Need connector on the board of the module. Need coaxial cable from PCB to antenna module. This antenna type requires emission testing to be performed.
PCB Antenna This antenna is part of the pattern on the PCB. It is lower in cost and flexible in design. PCB antennas are available from lower to higher frequency range. Also refer patch antenna design used in mobile phone.
Proprietary Antenna Designed by individual companies based on applications.

IoT Wireless Technologies

WLAN    ➤THREAD    ➤EnOcean    ➤LoRa    ➤SIGFOX    ➤WHDI    ➤Zigbee   ➤6LoWPAN   ➤Zigbee RF4CE   ➤Z-Wave   ➤NFC   ➤RFID   ➤Lonworks   ➤CEBus   ➤UPB  

RF and Wireless Terminologies