Smartphones have become everyday objects; however, mobile communication services, such as messaging and internet browsing, were not always as easy to use as they are today.
Connectivity is made possible by small, powerful Multilevel and Space-filling antennas, based on fractal technology, which receive signals across different frequency ranges simultaneously, facilitating the best possible coverage, even on the smallest mobile phone. Some are smaller than a grain of rice, measuring 4.7 x 2.0 mm, and enable the use of Bluetooth, WLAN, GSM, and UMTS technologies.
These antennas were invented by Carles Puente Baliarda and his team, who have now been nominated for the 2014 European Inventor Award in the small and medium-sized enterprise category. The 'Oscar' of technological innovation will be presented in Berlin on June 17th.
The origin of a revolutionary technology
Carles Puente Baliarda was born in Badalona, Catalonia (Spain). He was a student at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, where he already dreamed of becoming a researcher and scientist. In the 1990s, while still at university, he developed his first ideas for the antenna.
In 1995, the Catalan scientist and his team managed to develop and patent the first multiband fractal antenna, the origin of the new generation inventions incorporated in today's phones.
Example of an innovative company
In that same year, Puente Baliarda filed a patent application for the world's first multiband fractal antenna, a true revolution in the field of antenna technology.
Patenting this invention led to the creation of Fractus SA in 1999. The company has simultaneously become the world market leader for the development and production of fractal antennas, as well as holding more than 150 patents and patent applications in the antenna technology sector.
Puente Baliarda is one of the co-founders of Fractus, as well as its director and chief scientist. He is also a professor of Technology Management and Patents at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Barcelona-Tech).
Reduce size and improve quality
Fractal antennas get their name from the geometric properties of the elements used in their construction. Fractals are geometric shapes that contain multiple scales and often include small copies of themselves.
The fractals used by the Catalan company can be constructed and produced using the same processes and materials used for the development of printed circuit boards.
These antennas produced by Fractus can receive signals across different frequency ranges due to their multiscale geometric properties based on fractals. Each level of the scale functions as an individual antenna, so despite its small size, the antenna can transmit very efficiently across numerous frequencies.
Source: SINC Agency
