Have you ever wondered about how the remote area devices or devices in the moving vehicles stay connected? That’s where antennas like Puck come into play. Imagine an antenna so small and powerful enough to deliver fast and stable connections. That’s the Puck antenna, a compact solution with big capabilities.
Puck antennas are useful in some industries, including IoT (Internet of Things), transportation, marine, and smart utilities. These kinds of antennas are notable for their excellent design and functionality, even though they are small in size. Puck antennas are designed to deliver stable LTE connection, thanks to well-considered radiation patterns of all radiating elements that balance omnidirectional coverage. This means you still have a good solid connection even in a tough environment.
Let’s dive deeper into the puck antenna, which is a top choice in lot of industries.
Design and Shape of Puck Antennas
Puck antennas are designed to combine performance, durability, and versatility. Let’s take a closer look at the design and shape of Puck Antennas,
- Low profile and compact design: Puck antennas are well known for their sleek shape and small size.
- Durable and waterproof construction: They are designed to endure harsh conditions, and have IP66-rated enclosures that provide corrosion, dust, and water resistance.
- Adoptable cable and connector options: The puck antennas are driven by RF (Radio Frequency) elements, such as cables and connectors. Depending on the model, Puck antennas may feature single or multiple cables and connectors for MIMO configurations (Multiple Input Multiple Output).
- Good Signal Reception capability: These puck antennas are designed to deliver reliable connectivity. Therefore, they have Low Noise Amplifiers (LNA). LNAs are devices that play a crucial role in amplifying signals, especially for GNSS systems.
- Ground Plane Independency: Puck antennas are designed to maintain their performance whether or not a ground plane is present.
- Mounting: Puck antennas offer a variety of mounting options, such as spigot mount, adhesive tape mount, magnetic mount, and bracket mount. Let’s discuss them later.
Frequency Range of Puck Antenna
We know that, in wireless communication frequency bands are essential to determine how well devices can connect, transmit, and receive signals. Puck antennas are designed to support a wide range of frequency bands. They usually covers a frequency range from 617 MHz – 4200 MHz for cellular GSM/4G/5G, wimax and WiFi applications, ensuring compatibility with a broad spectrum for good connectivity. Some GPS puck antennas operate at 1575.42MHz and 1227.6 MHz, which is optimized for GPS/GLONASS systems(1600 MHz for additional GNSS systems, such as GLONASS or Galileo), providing precise location tracking.
Additionally, some puck antennas operate within the 2400 MHz to 2500 MHz and 5000 MHz to 7200 MHz frequency ranges, to support dual-band Wi-Fi with high-speed transmission in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. These are examples to highlight the common wideband capabilities of the puck antennas to meet the needs of modern communication systems.
Types of puck antennas
We have already discussed the design and the frequency ranges of puck antennas. Their versatility goes even further. Let’s discuss the different kinds of puck antennas. We can generally categorize the puck antennas as 4G LTE puck antennas, Combo puck antennas, GPS puck antennas, and puck MIMO antennas by looking at the common types available in the market. So, let’s take a look at the common types in the market.
4G LTE Puck Antenna
The 4G LTE puck antenna is primarily designed for high-speed mobile broadband connectivity. These antennas ensure reliable and stable data transmission in LTE networks, making them indispensable in applications where seamless communication is critical.
Features
- High gain to maximize signal strength in areas with weak coverage.
- Support for multiple LTE bands to ensure compatibility with diverse carrier networks globally.
- Weatherproof housing to withstand harsh outdoor environments, ensuring durability in all weather conditions.
Combo Puck Antenna
Combo puck antennas combine multiple communication functionalities into a single compact unit. Typically, they support LTE, Wi-Fi, and GPS simultaneously, offering an all-in-one solution for devices that require multi-band connectivity.
Features
- Compact design to save space while offering multi-band support.
- High-performance GPS modules that deliver accurate location data even in urban canyons or dense foliage.
- Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) for seamless wireless communication with minimal interference.
- Compatibility with 4G and emerging 5G networks to future-proof installations.
GPS Puck Antenna
As the name suggests, GPS puck antennas are specifically designed for precision navigation and tracking applications. They are built to deliver superior satellite signal reception, even in challenging environments like urban areas or open seas.
Features
- High sensitivity to ensure fast and accurate signal acquisition, even in obstructed environments.
- Dual-mode GPS/GLONASS or GPS/Galileo support to enhance accuracy by leveraging multiple satellite systems.
- Compact and rugged design, resistant to harsh weather conditions and physical impacts.
Puck MIMO Antenna
MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) puck antennas are designed to provide enhanced signal strength and reliability by employing multiple input and output connections. These antennas are particularly suitable for applications that demand high data throughput and robust connectivity.
Features
- Support for multiple LTE bands and 5G frequencies.
- High gain and efficiency to maximize throughput in dense urban environments.
- Omni-directional or directional variants tailored for specific deployment needs.
- Advanced noise reduction techniques to ensure reliable performance in interference-prone environments.
The various Puck antenna options offer LTE, 4G, 5G, 2X2 MIMO, 4X4 MIMO, WiFi, GPS, and GLONASS. By analyzing these, you can select the puck antenna that best meets your application requirements.
Applications of Puck Antennas
The versatility of the puck antennas makes them ideal for a wide range of applications, primarily in sectors that rely on reliable connectivity for tracking, data transmission, and positioning. For instance, if we look at smart utilities, they are used for applications like smart power gas and water metering, enabling real-time monitoring and efficient resource management. On the other hand, in smart buildings, puck antennas help improve energy management and building security by supporting automated irrigation, access control, climate control, and security systems.
Puck antennas are very important and useful in industrial automation because they optimize factory operations. Puck antennas guarantee smooth communication between devices in robotic machinery and machine-to-machine (M2M) systems. These puck antennas are also essential to digital signage systems because they give display networks that need real-time updates. Puck antennas make tracking, telecommunication, and inventory management, ensuring smooth operations.
Transport systems, utility vehicles, including buses, and public safety vehicles, rely on Puck antennas for real-time tracking and communication, improving operational efficiency and safety. Similar to this, Puck antennas facilitate automation, telemetry, and communication between vehicles and machinery, guaranteeing secure and effective operations in demanding conditions in the mining industry. These kinds of puck antennas are also very useful in agricultural machinery. They do this by enhancing the productivity of agricultural vehicles and enabling improved connectivity for precision farming. Since they offer reliable communication and positioning services, puck antennas are very useful in small boats. These broad ranges of uses highlight the important roles of puck antennas.
Advantages of Puck Antennas
Space-saving design
Now let’s take a look at the advantages of puck antennas. We know that the traditional antennas used in our homes are big in size and mounted outside of our houses. But puck antennas are designed with a compact and low profile which helps to save space. The size of the puck antenna is one of the major advantages of them. This compact size allows the antennas used in a lot of applications.
Robustness against physical impacts
Due to their rugged mechanical design, they ensure durability, offering corrosion resistance, protection from bad weather or rain, and protection against water and dust. These features make the puck antennas suitable for harsh outdoor conditions. Additionally, due to the enclosures, these puck antennas are fire-resistant and protected from the UV. Due to that, they have long-term reliability, even in intense sunlight and high temperature.
Wide-angle signal coverage
Puck antennas provide an excellent balance between omnidirectionality, pattern diversity, and good radiation abilities due to their RF elements. Although compact, puck antennas deliver excellent performance in the frequency ranges they are designed for, such as LTE and GNSS, but may not be optimized for millimeter-wave bands used in advanced 5G applications.
Ease of Installation
The availability of variant mounting options makes the puck antennas easier to install and mount. The more common installation methods are magnet mount, pole mounting, adhesive tape mount, and through-hole installation.
Multi-Band Support
Additionally, they are capable of operating across different frequency bands as we already see, which helps the users to reduce the need for separate antennas for different systems. These are making puck antennas the best choice for several tasks.
Now let’s take a look at the performance consideration of the puck antennas.
Performance consideration
When we are talking about puck antennas it is very important to consider the performance of the puck antennas. You may ask, how to measure the performance of the puck antenna? To get the answer to this question, we need to analyze some parameters of the antenna, including gain, polarization, and efficiency. Let’s see what are these things and how they affect the performance.
Gain: The term antenna gain describes how much power is transmitted in the direction of peak radiation to that of an isotropic source. If you look at the data-sheet for an antenna, you will typically see units for antenna gain listed in dB or dBi. Puck antennas are optimized for various ranges, offering -1dBi to 8dBi according to their requirements and their design.
Polarization: The polarization of an antenna is defined as the direction of the electromagnetic fields produced by the antenna as energy radiates away from it. These direction fields determine the direction in which the energy moves away from or is received by an antenna. Vertical polarization refers to the oscillation of an antenna’s electrical field on the vertical plane, whereas horizontal polarization refers to the oscillation on the horizontal plane. Puck antenna ranges are linear and vertically polarized.
Efficiency: The efficiency of the antenna is the ratio of the power delivered to the antenna relative to the power radiated from the antenna. A high-efficiency antenna has most of the power present at the antenna’s input radiated away. A low-efficiency antenna has most of the power absorbed as losses within the antenna or reflected away due to impedance mismatch. Puck antennas provide excellent efficiency especially, at high frequencies.
Puck Antenna Use in the Navigation System
Puck antennas play a crucial role in navigation systems through their integration with GPS (Global Positioning System). The purpose of these kinds of antennas is to pick up and boost the signals that are sent by the satellites. The puck antenna captures GPS signals and amplifies them for accurate reception by connected devices. Puck antennas are frequently appeared in modern vehicles to enable smooth navigation while driving. From these, we can understand the importance of puck antennas in the modern navigation system.
Installation of Puck Antennas
If we look at the installation methods of the puck antennas, their positioning and mounting methods are designed to maximize their performance, while maintaining an ease of use. Commonly these antennas are placed on the roof of vehicles, to ensure signal reception.
For secure mounting, there are several options available. They may attach using a magnetic mount since they are convenient and easy to remove. Some of the puck antennas are mounted by adhesive mounts since they offer easy and quick installation on mounting surfaces. However, the antenna will not be readily removed and may have lost its adhesiveness when it is remounted. For more fixed and durable installation, the through-hole mounting option is preferred. Through-Hole-Mount antennas are also called “Screw Mount Antennas”. The installation involves drilling a hole through the mounting surface, of a diameter such that the “stud” will fit perfectly and snugly through the hole.
Each of these methods ensures the reliable performance of the antenna. Choose a good mounting technique when choosing a puck antenna next time.
Tesswave provides puck antenna customized service
Tesswave Technology is a prominent designer, manufacturer, and supplier of wireless antenna solutions. The company which is well known for its robust capabilities, and vast manufacturing experience, guarantees consistent quality products. Puck antennas are one of the specialized antenna solutions Tesswaves offers for a wide range of applications.
Conclusion
To sum up, puck antennas provide reliable, and long-lasting solutions for a range of uses, including industrial automation, IoT, and GPS navigation. The construction of the puck antennas ensures resistance to environmental elements like rain, wind, dust, and corrosion, while a broad frequency range allows for reliable communication in different conditions. They are very simple to use and mount with a lot of options for installation. They distinguish themselves as a perfect option for high-performance wireless communication, proving their value in both commercial and industrial settings.
