Antenna specialist, Sarantel, has announced that CellGuide, a leader in wireless location fixing technology and products, has selected the company's PowerHelix(TM) antenna for use in its new mobile phone GPS add-on. 

CellGuide's AGPS (Assisted-GPS) incorporates a full extra sensitivity GPS (Global Positioning System) engine which enables the mobile user's geographical position to be accurately identified, often to within 5 metres. 

Used as a replacement for a standard mobile phone battery, the AGPS will provide enormous opportunities for service providers and operators who will be able to offer their customers a wide variety of additional value-added services such as automobile navigation, geo-based billing and intelligent Internet applications. The add-on's introduction is timely since US service carriers need to provide details of how they intend to ensure that 95% of 911 mobile emergency calls can be located to within 150 metres, a task easily accomplished by GPS technology. 

Details of the mobile phones for which CellGuide's AGPS is suitable will be announced shortly. 

The PowerHelix technology operates at virtually any angle, improving the acquisition and maintenance of satellite positions in handheld or mobile devices. The antenna also has a high gain, and utilises reflected signals to offer improved positional accuracy in close to body, urban or marginal signal environments. These features ensure that the antenna is not de-tuned by proximity to nearby objects and will work in a variety of orientations and environments. 

Baruch Shayevits, CellGuide's R & D manager, stated, ``During the AGPS design phase, we produced versions using both the Sarantel PowerHelix and a patch antenna. Extensive tests in Israel, Italy, France and Finland in open areas, urban and dense urban areas, and inside buildings, shopping malls and narrow streets showed that units incorporating the Sarantel antenna excelled in performance and were particularly tolerant of nearby objects such as human tissue.'' 

CellGuide found that, on average, the PowerHelix antenna had 5dB more sensitivity than the patch antenna, a feature which is especially important for applications involving the identification of the location of 911 type emergency calls made from mobile phones. The company is also intending to incorporate a down-converter into the antenna which will further increase the level of packaging integration of the battery pack. 

Editor's technical notes: 

The PowerHelix technology, developed by Sarantel in conjunction with Loughborough University, has a right-hand circular primary polarisation generating a cardioid-shaped reception pattern above the antenna. The antenna also generates a left hand pattern beneath the antenna, enabling it to pick up the bounced signals typically encountered in urban areas. The active part of the antenna is isolated from the handset case and has a very small near-field region. This makes it far less susceptible to being in close proximity with the body or other absorbing material than with conventional designs. 

About Sarantel Ltd 

Founded in September 2000, UK-based Sarantel (www.sarantel.com) specialises in small antennas for portable and mobile devices, including GPS, ISM band (Bluetooth) and GSM, PCN and PCS mobile telephones. 

Built on 20 years of research effort, Sarantel Ltd is a privately funded company formed from the management buyout of the Symmetricom Inc. antenna division. Symmetricom is the world's leading provider of network synchronisation equipment and continue to back Sarantel Ltd in partnership with 3i, Foresight Technologies and employee investors. 

PowerHelix(TM) is a trademark of Sarantel Ltd. 

About CellGuide Ltd 

CellGuide: (www.cell-guide.com) has developed a revolutionary Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) location technology that provides both high accuracy and high availability while remaining a low cost solution. CellGuide has embedded its A-GPS technology into a new line of A-GPS products: An A-GPS Cellular accessory and an A-GPS Tracker. CellGuide has currently more than 20 patents pending covering the various aspects of its PinPointer(TM) technology family of products. 

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