Choosing an off-the-shelf commercial antenna for your connected product can solve many challenges ! but only if your product’s operating constraints allow you to meet the recommended integration guidelines, which is often not the case. Ignoring these guidelines can unfortunately cast doubt on the antenna’s effectiveness.

In many situations, integrating a standard antenna is indeed feasible. However, to ensure at least acceptable antenna efficiency, this integration must be done carefully, accompanied by thorough verification measurements, both conducted and radiated, to confirm proper antenna performance within your product’s specific constraints.

This can be achieved by:

• Selecting the appropriate antenna technology (ceramic, wired, PIFA, etc.)
• Making informed mechanical design choices for your product
• Optimizing the placement of internal components, especially the antenna itself
• Adding matching components on the PCB, if necessary, to tune the antenna to the desired frequency band
• Choosing suitable coating materials with favorable RF characteristics, when applicable

…and applying many other techniques tailored to the specific constraints of your project.