High-precision positioning antennas are critical for applications like autonomous driving, surveying, and precision agriculture, where location accuracy within centimeters (or even millimeters) is required. These antennas are designed to receive signals from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)—GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou—and augment them with correction data (e.g., RTK, PPP) to achieve sub-meter to centimeter-level precision.
The design prioritizes minimizing multipath interference, which occurs when signals reflect off surfaces (buildings, ground) and reach the antenna with time delays, corrupting position calculations. To mitigate this, high-precision antennas use a ground plane with choke rings (concentric conductive rings) that absorb reflected signals, reducing multipath errors by up to 90%. The antenna element itself is often a helical or patch design optimized for circular polarization, matching the polarization of GNSS signals to maximize reception.
Bandwidth is another key feature, as these antennas must operate across multiple GNSS frequency bands (e.g., GPS L1/L2/L5, Galileo E1/E5). A wideband design (1.1–1.7 GHz) ensures compatibility with all major constellations, enabling multi-constellation positioning for improved reliability in challenging environments (urban canyons, dense foliage).
Phase center stability is critical for precision—small variations in the antenna’s electrical phase center (where signals are effectively received) can introduce positioning errors. High-quality antennas maintain phase center variations below 1 mm across the antenna’s beamwidth, achieved through symmetric element design and careful manufacturing.
Integration with low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) with low phase noise (e.g., < -120 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset) ensures weak satellite signals are amplified without introducing errors. The antenna’s housing is weatherproof (IP68) and rugged to withstand harsh conditions, with a low-profile design for vehicle or drone mounting.
Testing involves evaluating performance in anechoic chambers and real-world scenarios, measuring metrics like carrier-to-noise density (C/N0), multipath rejection, and position accuracy with RTK correction. By combining advanced design features with precise manufacturing, high-precision positioning antennas enable the reliable, accurate location data essential for next-generation navigation systems.
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