Metamaterials

Various implementations of Metamaterial (MTM) structures have been reported and demonstrated. RAYSPAN® MTM designs are based on the Transmission Line (TL) approach referred to as Composite Right Left Hand CRLH-TL, which can exhibit Left Hand (LH) propagation, Right Hand (RH) propagation, or both. The underlying design method is based on Dispersion engineering, also referred to as Phase engineering, where the propagation constant is derived as function of frequency.

RAYSPAN established a strong foundation for licensing and protecting its metamaterial solutions with an Intellectual Property portfolio that includes over seventy awarded and pending domestic and international patents covering the world’s most advanced metamaterial wireless technology. Its pioneering MTM work ranges from identifying fundamental structures to applying them to the building blocks of every wireless air interface:

  • Antennas
  • Power Amplifiers
  • Filters
  • Diplexers/Duplexers
  • Directional Couplers
  • Power Combiner and Splitter
  • Other RF components


Metamaterial Antennas

RAYSPAN® Metamaterials (MTM) are manmade composite materials engineered to produce desired electromagnetic propagation behavior not found in natural media. They make possible unprecedented improvements in air interface integration, Over the Air (OTA) performance and miniaturization while simultaneously reducing BOM cost and SAR values. The MTM's electromagnetic (EM) propagation results from its structure rather than from the specific materials on which it is composed. MTMs enable physically small but electrically large air interface components, with minimal coupling among closely spaced devices. These novel MTM antennas are made of copper printed directly on the dielectric substrate and can be fabricated on a conventional FR-4 substrate or a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) board.

Unlike conventional antennas where size determines resonance frequencies, CRLH-based antenna resonances are determined by the Cell structure rather than the antenna's physical dimensions. Hence, the ability to further reduce antenna size while confining EM fields in the vicinity of antenna structure to reduce SAR and user impact on performance.

MTM antennas can be made very broadband to support today’s multiband wireless application requirements. A single MTM antenna can support all cellular frequency bands (from 700MHz to 2.7GHz), using single or multiple feed designs, which eliminates the need for antenna switches. Multi-band MTM functionality provides global cellular connectivity that covers both low-band frequencies including GSM/WCDMA/ HSPA/LTE (700/800/900 MHz) and high-band frequencies including DCS/PCS/ WCDMA/HSPA/LTE (1700/ 1800/1900/ 2100 MHz). Integration of GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and WiMax is also possible within the same antenna array without injecting any undesirable coupling, eliminating the need for multiple large external and internal antennas and associated decoupling and matching circuitry.