Engineering tomorrow’s connected house today
In the Internet of Things (IoT), connection isn’t a luxury: it’s a necessity. Luckily, even a single antenna can transmit and receive unprecedented amounts of data. Antennas are the unsung hero of the ever-changing world of IoT, from home automation to energy solutions and surveillance products.
Today’s home has to do more than look good—it has to seamlessly communicate with all of the appliances inside.
That high expectation for the modern home means engineers have to grapple with home automation needs from lighting solutions and connected outlets. Security and surveillance endpoints range from door locks to smoke detectors. Energy and utility concerns span thermostats and weather stations.
Yet with the right design, hardware and help, the dream of tomorrow’s fully connected home can become a reality today.
The world doesn’t work without wireless—and that’s no easy feat
Antennas guide electromagnetic waves to unguided electromagnetic waves and vice versa. To work for the connected home, they also have to exist among a bevy of devices with wireless protocols driven by range, data usage requirement or power consumption. Antenna design depends on:
Communication frequency
Antenna patterns and shapes have to be designed to match a specific frequency or bandwidth. Higher data rates require more power and higher frequency.
Antenna location
Antennas can be mounted onto PCBs, embedded into coaxial cables, ruggedized to be exposed to weather and harsh environments or live completely outside of a smart device.
Size, shape of deployment
The desired location of the antenna dictates not only the different antenna choices, but also materials and shapes.
Use case for consumers
How you use the antenna impacts the environment its housed in to create optimal performance—and what it needs to be prepared for from the outside world.
That’s just the antennas. A sampling of components for the connected home range from I/Os to plug connectors, modular jacks, connectors and microminiatures.
Avnet and Molex: connecting the dots on the connected home
Avnet’s extensive team of specialists offer design and solution support to engineers with interconnect, sensors, wireless, passive, power supplies and battery products. Molex offers electronic components and solutions and has acquired technologies from software to firmware.
Together we bring you a portfolio of high-performing solutions and associated technologies that enable you to transform concepts into smart connected designs across a wide range of applications.
Explore the connected home experience
From security and surveillance to energy and utilities, home automation has a variety of applications. Discover all the connections in an interactive experience.
Avnet and Molex
Antennas for the connected home
Browse the extensive portfolio of high performance components for a broad spectrum of wireless applications
IoT
How IoT and antennas met
Go back to basics on the future of the connected home and how antennas are the unsung hero of the Internet of Things.
RF & Wireless
Selecting the Right RF Antenna
Learn the key design considerations for selecting the right RF antenna, including when to choose standard, when to go custom.
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