If you could go back in time and change your product to increase its performance, reliability, and competitiveness, what would you do? If it’s used for navigation, fitness tracking, autonomous vehicles, and other location-based applications, you’d probably upgrade its Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) capabilities to support multiple bands.
The good news is that you can apply that 20/20 hindsight to products currently on your drawing board. To develop a future-proofing strategy, start by considering how GNSS constellations are evolving.
For example, GPS initially had just one signal for civilian applications: L1 at 1575.42 MHz, which enable location accuracy of 3 meters. Today, L1 can be combined with the newer L2 (1227.60 MHz) and/or L5 (1176.45 MHz) signals to increase accuracy down to 1.5 meters. That’s because L2 mitigates ionosphere-related errors by providing a second signal to augment L1. The L5 signals also are more powerful than L2 signals.
If 1.5 meter accuracy isn’t enough, one option is to add support for the L-Band, which provides subscription data services that augment GNSS signals to maximize granularity down to about 20 centimeters. For centimeter-level accuracy, a real-time kinematic (RTK) correction service subscription is necessary. (For a deeper dive into both options, see “How to Leverage the L-Band to Balance Accuracy and Affordability for GNSS Applications.”)
Besides higher accuracy, the ability to receive multiple signals — or even multiple GNSS constellations — increases application reliability and performance. An example is a navigation application that needs to acquire signals quickly and consistently even in urban concrete canyons. That’s easier to achieve when it’s not depending on just one or even two constellations’ signals.
Keep in mind that the marketplace also is evolving. For example, 1.5-meter accuracy might be sufficient today. But suppose that tomorrow a competitor launches a product with 0.2-meter accuracy. Now your product is suddenly at a competitive disadvantage.
A similar scenario is when a new product hits the market with support for L1, L2, and L5. If your product supports only L1 and L2, or only L1 and L5, it’s now at a competitive disadvantage.
Hence the importance of considering the capabilities that your product might need a year or three down the road to remain competitive as the marketplace evolves. It’s cheaper and easier to add those capabilities now and activate them later than it is to redesign the product and try to get customers to upgrade.
Expanded Taoglas TFM Module Portfolio Provides New Options for Adding Multi-Band Capabilities
The more bands that a GNSS antenna supports, the larger and more complex it becomes.
(L-R: Single band, quad constellation 25*25*4mm; Triple-band, quad constellation 50*50*12mm)
For example, multi-band and multi-constellation antennas have a higher pin count, as well as components such as amplifiers, filters, and hybrid couplers. (For more information about how these components work, see “Active vs Passive: Choosing a GNSS Antenna Solution.”)
Even so, this sophistication doesn’t necessarily come with a hefty price premium. BOM costs for multi-band antennas have steadily declined over the past decade. So, if you’ve stuck with single-band antennas because your target market is price sensitive, it’s time to take a fresh look at your options.
To meet growing demand for multi-band antennas, Taoglas recently expanded its TFM series of multi-band GNSS front-end modules, which serve as a bridge between the antenna and RF module. Featuring a two-stage cascaded filter, low noise amplifier (LNA), and a shielded, robust, compact, low-profile surface mount package, these modules are an ideal way to add active electronics to GNSS designs.
For more information about the expanded TFM portfolio, visit https://www.taoglas.com/news/taoglas-expands-tfm-series-of-multi-band-gnss-front-end-modules-to-accelerate-high-precision-applications-development.
