© Vienna University of Technology, Ilmenau University of Technology
For this reason, it is crucial to discover new options to integrate antennas in cars. In the “shark fin” of vehicles located on the rear side of the car’s roof, the location for antennas today, it is not possible to house any number of antennas for technical reasons and also due to the insufficient space. That is why the Vienna University of Technology decided to develop a new method of installing antennas in cars to enable the vehicles to fulfil future technical challenges.
Gerald Artner in the Telecommunications department constructed an antenna box from carbon fiber-reinforced polymer material which could be installed in the front part of the roof, close to the windscreen. Comprehensive measurements show that the directional characteristic of the transmission around the car is very good. As a result of the new option for antennas, cars are well equipped for the transmission requirements of tomorrow. In cooperation with the Thüringer Innovationszentrum Mobilität [Thuringian Centre of Innovation in Mobility] at TU Ilmenau in Thuringia, his kind of antenna cavity was built into a car roof for the first time. The entire car was then subject to measurements in the only research laboratory of its kind in Europe, the Virtual Road Simulation and Test Area (VISTA), in order to identify the resulting radiation patterns.
