Embedded couplers enable proximity wireless transfer

Article By : Antenova

The compact Zoma coupler from Antenova is aimed at mobile phone handsets, PCs, laptops, tablets, digital cameras and M2M devices, including water resistant devices without physical external ports.

Antenova, a maker of antennas and RF antenna modules for M2M, has brought to market its TransferJet coupler, Zoma, which the company announced in September last year. The Zoma coupler (part# SR4T014) measures 4mm x 4mm x 0.4mm, which Antenova believes is the smallest coupler of its kind.

TransferJet is a close proximity wireless transfer technology that radiates very low power radio waves. It was designed to be a simple but fast way to transfer multimedia data. Originally developed by a consortium of vendors led by Sony, TransferJet bridges the gap between a device that creates content and a separate device that plays content back. For example it can be used to transfer photos or videos from a camera to a large TV screen, or in any other situation where high volume data transfer by USB cable or memory card creates a bottle neck.

__Figure 1:__ *The Zoma coupler measures 4mm x 4mm x 0.4mm*

TransferJet combines the speed of ultra-wide band networking with the ease of NFC. It operates over very short ranges, with low power consumption, and provides secure, high speed file exchange for content sharing between devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, camcorders, computers, TVs, games consoles and printer. It also has applications in in-car navigation, digital signage and digital kiosks, where it provides an ideal complementary technology to NFC, indicated the company.

__Figure 2:__ *The diagram shows how the pair of TransferJet couplers operate when placed close together.*

It transfers high resolution video and high quality sound without a physical cable, at speeds of 560Mb/s at the physical layer, which is equal to a maximum data throughput of 375Mb/s. At such speeds, a one-hour TV programme in MPEG4 can be transferred in a few seconds. Files are pushed or pulled, simply by tapping the two devices together or placing them in very close proximity, and files are transferred automatically without any setup or device pairing.

TransferJet uses a coupler, which is different to an antenna. An antenna is designed to send a signal as far as possible, but a coupler concentrates on near field signals, and only transmits data when the two devices touch, or are placed extremely close together.

__Figure 3:__ *Antenova provides evaluation boards for customers to test the Zoma coupler with their designs.*

The board, which measures 50mm x 40mm, uses an Atmel SAMS70/SAMV70 microprocessor and Antenova’s TransferJet coupler to provide a development platform that is suitable for many applications where there is high data aggregation with a requirement for ultra-fast wireless offload.

Antenova’s TransferJet coupler is aimed at mobile phone handsets, PCs, laptops, tablets, digital cameras, and M2M devices, including water resistant devices without physical external ports.

__Figure 4:__ *Icoteq’s sensor board for high speed data with TransferJet*

The company is collaborating with partner Icoteq to build TransferJet designs for customers worldwide.

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