Product category:
Antennas and Feeders
News Release from: CTi | Subject: Antennas
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 11 September 2007
Design and manufacturing enable antenna
innovation
Laurence Marchini talks to Steve Harris and James Farrar of Hampshire-based antenna manufacturer CTi.
There are not many markets in which a leading player will pride itself on being reactive, but such is the lot of the antenna manufacturer And key to that ability is an intimate relationship between design and manufacturing
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 31 Oct 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Based on the South Coast of England, CTi is a company that has its roots in the automotive marketplace.
The company was founded in 1996, initially producing GPS and then GSM antennas for vehicle mounting, and in 2003 was acquired by Armour Automotive to complement its auto audio accessory range.
However, the automotive aftermarket is a notoriously fickle mistress, and the name of the game in recent years has been diversification, with a mix of contract manufacturing, bespoke design and antenna innovation that fully exploits the company's existing structure.
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This structure, which collocates design and assembly operations on one site, with an injection moulding operation nearby and high-volume manufacturing in the Far East, provides a rare luxury for Technical Manager James Farrar - the ability to get new and improved antenna designs off the drawing board and into production in the shortest timescale possible.
"We have to face the reality that an antenna manufacturer is never going to have the final say in this market", says Farrar.
"The industry is driven by standards, and we don't set them; we look at the requirement and produce the best designs we can".
And for Farrar, the design exercise is all down to experience.
RF designers would have us all believe that they practice a "black art".
But in reality, with many years and many hundreds (if not thousands) of designs under his belt, each new design is based on existing work - evolution rather than revolution.
"The simulation software vendors are on at me virtually every week, and there certainly are merits to simulation before prototyping", he says.
"But there is no way I can justify the money they are asking when our existing methods are so successful".
This harks back to CTi's "ideal" setup, whereby a design can be progressed from the drawing board to the production tester without leaving the premises.
Not only does this ensure that new designs are manufacturable, it makes variants and specials particularly easy to implement.
The local injection moulding facility has a role to play here too.
For example, gone are the days when (like the Ford Model T) antennas could come in any colour you like - so long as it's black.
Sadly, these days automotive antennas are prey to vandalism, and so camouflage is a key factor.
CTi Director Steve Harris is particularly proud with the way the company identified this as a niche it could exploit.
"Our first version was in white, which went down a storm with delivery fleets", he says.
"But then we were asked for a solution to malicious damage to emergency vehicles, and so fire engine red was our next option".
So where do Farrar and Harris see CTi progressing? The embedded market is the obvious answer, and that does not necessarily mean moving too far outside the automotive sector.
The company's latest designs have seen them working with module manufacturers who want to integrate antennas within their products, with automotive tier ones integrating increasing numbers of mobile telemetry systems into vehicles, and with a wide range of fixed telemetry systems in application areas such as vending machines.
One thing is for certain: with an ever increasing variety of wireless standards, the antenna market will offer a versatile company like CTi an ever increasing range of opportunities.
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