Intennas and DMB Antennas

One of major concerns surrounding the antenna industry is the ability of makers to provide internal antennas or “intennas” and antennas for DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) handsets. Due to the growing demand for slimmer cellular phones, companies are being forced to change the design of their handsets that use external antennas to the new intennas. At the same time, antenna manufactures are concentrating on providing antennas for DMB phones. Helping makers to make this switch from external antennas to internal ones is the country’s Satellite DMB service, which now has over 110,000 subscribers in Korea. Another digital multimedia broadcasting standard, the Terrestrial DMB service is also projected to commence by the end of this month.



Currently, about 30,000 units of DMB phones are being produced monthly, while mobile handset producers, such as Samsung and LG Electronics, plan to increase the production of their DMB handsets by up to 30% in 2006.







Local antenna companies that faced hard times due to significant declines in per unit costs are buoyed by these changes. Although currently there is little demand for DMB antennas, makers are upbeat that these devices will provide them with considerable business opportunity and that this market will get bigger during the next few years.



ACE Technology, one of the leading antenna companies in Korea, sees great potential for Terrestrial DMB handsets. The company claims it already has 20 antennas for mobile applications, such as cellular phones, DMB handsets, PDAs, and PMPs (personal media centers). The company currently offers various external antennas, intennas, DMB antennas and chip antennas. It is also developing new products, such as MEMSs, UWBs and re-configurable antennas.



“European companies were interested in our antenna technology for the DMB handsets and are surprised by the smallness of our devices,” says Won Ho Jang, principal research engineer of ACE Technology, after visiting the IBC2005 (International Broadcasting Convention) in Amsterdam.



Another well-known company is EMW Antenna, which recently announced its antennas for Terrestrial DMB devices. The company’s external and internal antennas are largely used in LG handsets. SB Telcom has produced various antennas for Satellite/Terrestrial DMB handsets, and some models are being supplied to major mobile handset companies. “Once SB Telcom released DMB antennas, only 10 companies were interested in our products. Now, about 60 companies are willing to deal with us,” says Jung Kwon Park, sales manger of SB Telcom.



Makers are seeing a notable trend in the use of intennas in the mobile handset market. In 2004, the demand for intennas grew 38% (369 million units), and this year the market is predicted to increase 25% (463 million units). [KEA] Moreover, by virtue of their small size and lower costs, not to mention their ability to reduce harmful EMI/EMS radiation, intennas are rapidly becoming popular in the market.



With a strong focus on the intenna business, SB Telcom expects the market to grow steadily. To reduce production costs, the company has set up new fully automatic assembly lines for intennas. It also produces ultra-small antennas, which don’t affect exterior designs of mobile handsets. These multibandwidth antennas are aimed at various telecom services, such as GSM, PCS and DCN.



According to Won Mo Seong, director of R&D in EMW Antenna, the most important challenge facing makers is how to integrate and optimize the intenna with the other components in mobile handsets. “Assembly process for external and internal antennas is not that simple, so without having accumulated technology, entering into intenna sector won’t be easy.” There are many constraining factors that Korea’s antenna companies need to resolve. Fierce market competition and dwindling unit costs notwithstanding, makers need to find solutions to optimize the performance of intennas with other RF components and face the reality of product life cycles becoming even shorter.