[September 08, 2014]

Ethertronics Achieves 30% Spectral Efficiency Gains in LTE Carrier Trials for its Innovative, Game-Changing Technology

Ethertronics, a leading technology company enabling innovative antenna and RF system solutions to deliver the best connected experience, today announced that the company has completed successful trials of its Active Steering™ solution with Tier One carriers in the United States and Europe. Designed to maximize throughput and reliability in 3G and 4G (LTE (News - Alert) and LTE-Advanced) wireless devices, Ethertronics' Active Steering solution was able to achieve significant spectral efficiency gains of 30 percent on two different LTE networks.

Active Steering is designed to address a wide range of wireless issues including capacity, emissions, device size and SAR management. Active Steering generates multiple radiation patterns from a single antenna structure, providing the benefits of multiple antennas, in a small footprint, accessible for today's "thin" devices. Active Steering's proprietary algorithm samples and switches between the multiple radiation patterns, selecting the best one for that specific environment (cell edge versus near cell tower in the case of a cell phone). The technology removes the need to move your phone around in low signal areas in an attempt get a strong enough signal to connect to the network. As a result, the users benefit from better connectivity, increased download speeds and improved experience while wireless carriers benefit from increased spectral efficiency, decreasing the burden on the network. While Active Steering is designed for implementation into small wireless devices such as smartphones, tablets and more, other tests show significant throughput improvement in larger devices such as routers.

"The continued roll out of 4G networks coupled with consumers' growing desire for feature-packed devices such as smartphones, tablets and wearables, have significantly impacted wireless carriers' networks," said Laurent Desclos, President and CEO of Ethertronics. "To date, one of the only solutions for handling this influx of traffic and oversaturation of networks has been to build out their infrastructure or get access to additional spectrum-both of which can be costly and in some cases nearly impossible. Active Steering technology is unique in that it allws carriers to capitalize on the opportunities for 4G by enabling the device to be the catalyst for optimizing their networks. The trials that we conducted, with Tier One carriers both here in the U.S. and in Europe, showed that carriers can gain an average of 30 percent spectral efficiency when Active Steering technology is integrated into a device. These gains alone can have a major effect on a carrier's CapEx and OpEx budgets. The carriers, who trialed this solution, were very excited with the results and are already in talks with OEMs to integrate our Active Steering technology into their devices. We are all pursuing the same goal of providing the best user experience. Active Steering automatically provides the best signal strength instead of the user having to move their cell phone in different directions hoping to get a strong enough signal to connect to the network. We make it easy for OEMs to implement this solution since we offer a complete solution with offices around the world able to implement our antenna architecture, RFIC and algorithm."

"As data use increases, cellular operators need to find new ways to make the most out of their 3G and 4G networks," said Christopher Taylor, Director of RF & Wireless Components at Strategy Analytics (News - Alert). "Instead of adding expensive cellular infrastructure or buying more spectrum, Ethertronics' Active Steering increases network spectral efficiency by improving the capabilities of the devices themselves. We believe that advanced mobile device antenna solutions such as Ethertronics' Active Steering can help carriers and provide OEMs with a simple way to differentiate their products."

This patented, game-changing, technology combines Ethertronics' patented Isolated Magnetic Dipole™ (IMD) antenna technology with its active antenna systems approach. For all applications, Active Steering enables device vendors to use noticeably better performance and reliability to significantly differentiate their smartphones, tablets and other devices. This is critical in today's ultra-competitive market.

In addition, Active Steering provides more degrees of freedom through IoT/M2M networking by enabling sub-networking, as well as layer structuring, on a semi point-to-point communication system. Ethertronics' patent portfolio has significantly more depth than what is seen from a standard antenna company. Ethertronics has been in stealth mode for a long time on this technology in order to secure patents at multiple-levels. The benefits of this disruptive technology are being demonstrating step-by-step, with many more to come.

The Active Steering trials clocked more than 2,000 hours of field test data collected over a period of 2.5 months on active LTE networks.

More information on Ethertronics' Active Steering solutions can be found at http://www.ethertronics.com/index.php/innovative-technology/active-steering/.

Ethertronics will be discussing its new Active Steering solution as well as other innovative products during CTIA (News - Alert) Super Mobility Week, September 9-11, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nev. To set up a meeting and learn more, please contact [email protected].

About Ethertronics

Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Ethertronics is a technology company enabling innovative antenna and RF system solutions to deliver the best connected experience for operators, OEMs and consumers. The company - via its Antenna, Systems and Chip Divisions - is established in designing and manufacturing high-performance embedded antenna system solutions supporting a wide range of applications. Ethertronics' patented Isolated Magnetic Dipole™ (IMD) technology has a legacy as a strong foundation for passive, as well as active antennas designs. Ethertronics' technology has been selected by major customers with worldwide shipments over one billion to date. Ethertronics maintains a global network of design centers and manufacturing operations. For more information, visit www.ethertronics.com. For images of Ethertronics' products contact [email protected].

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