A fundamental patent has been issued to Rayspan Corp. for its metamaterialbased air-interface products. The patent claims to encompass a broad range of metamaterial inventions that make possible the company's ultra-miniature antennas and related air-interface components and systems. The air-interface products that are enabled by this technology include ultra-compact implementations for broadband and multiband antennas, filters, couplers, diplexers, and duplexers for all wireless-local-areanetowrk (WLAN) and cellular-handset applications.
Metamaterials are composite materials that are engineered to produce desired electromagnetic propagation behavior that is not found in naturally occurring materials. They make possible advances in air-interface miniaturization, performance, and integration while reducing costs and simplifying manufacturing. Today's air interface presents some of the most challenging system-integration problems facing the wireless industry. As new standards call for utilizing multiple radio bands, complex modulation schemes, and multiple modes and channels, the size and spacing requirements of the components that comprise the interface make it virtually impossible to achieve compact mobile-terminal size while maintaining adequate system performance. Rayspan's metamaterial airinterface products promise to enable ultra-compact, multi-band, multi-mode, and/or MIMO WLAN devices and cellular handsets with high communication speed, range, and mobility at reduced costs.