New Antenna Tech Lowers Power Use of BlackBerry, iPhone Etc.

Atif Shamim, an electronics PhD student at Carleton University, has developed a way to greatly reduced smartphone, such as BlackBerry or iPhone power consumption.

He developed a prototype that removes of all the wires used to connect the electronic circuits with the antenna. It uses packaging technique to connect the antenna with the circuits via a wireless connection between a micro-antenna embedded within the circuits on the chip.

"This has not been tried before -- that the circuits are connected to the antenna wirelessly. They've been connected through wires and a bunch of other components. That's where the power gets lost," Mr. Shamim said in the Ottawa Citizen

The module, Shamim developed consumes 12 times less power than the traditional, wired-transmitter module. It is also much simpler in design which lowers the overall cost of any device using it.