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Using power line or a cable to work as antenna

Richard Ma
Intellectual 2000 points

Hi team,

I have received a request from my customer and they want to use the power line (220V AC) to work as antenna because they device will be put in a metal cage which blocks almost everything. Actually they mentioned that their competitor claimed that it has the technology so I would like to check with you guys to see if it is possible to do that?

If it is unrealistic, can you think of anyway to do things similar like that? e.g. use an extra copper wire and etc..

Thanks!

Best regards,

Richard

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 33080 points
    Hi Richard,

    There are applications such as mining and tunnels which actually use long cables as a leaky antenna waveguide. All cables will work as an antenna but the main question is how efficiently will they radiate ? If power cables are used then an amount of RF energy will travel through the power cable and energy absorbed into other devices coupled on the same power line as well so the efficiency could be low. Another issue to determine would be the isolation of the power line to the radio antenna interface.

    If the end devices is in a metal box with a power cable then a separate cable could always be used as an antenna which is easier to control and to tune. Is it possible to have an additional wire as a antenna which is perpendicular to the metal plane / box ? This would give the best efficiency without a doubt.

    Regards, Richard
  • 0 in reply to RGW
    TI__Intellectual 2000 points
    Hi Richard,

    Thanks for your explanation. Do we have any related demos, reference designs or cases that could be shared with customer to help them implement such systems?

    Thanks,

    Best regards,
    Richard