Taoglas antenna for GPS applications in vehicles

The Taoglas AP.35a is an active 35 x 35mm antenna developed for use in compromised environments.

The AP.35s is a complete GPS antenna solution made from high-grade ceramic supplied with its own ground-plane and can be terminated with the customer's choice of connector.

In addition, it does not take up valuable board space as it can hover over the main board of the device, saving space and also allowing for a much higher gain and resistance to noise than existing passive patch antennas.

Combining high-zenith gain and low-axial ratio, the antenna is capable of receiving weak signals at low elevation satellites, giving the greatest GPS sensitivity.

An internal SAW filter reduces noise entering from the device system, which is important when considering the close proximity of cellular transmitters and circuitry in miniature devices.

These results combined lead to quicker cold starts and more accurate position and location information.

With a cold start of 21 sec in open sky conditions with the uBlox 5 module, testing has confirmed that the AP.35a cuts up to 5sec off the market cold-start performance of Taoglas's existing antenna, the AP.25B.

Maximum C/N ratio of 51 with 12 simultaneous locked satellites has been recorded over 24 hours, an improvement from 10.

The company said these incremental changes result in improvements in reliability and accuracy for professional GPS system designers.