Glass-ceramic as a high-performance antenna material

Unforeseeable capabilities of a proven material in a futuristic application for mobile communications / SCHOTT researcher awarded prestigious Vodafone grant

SCHOTT researcher H. Braun receives Vodafone grant for thesis on glass-ceramics in antennas for mobile communication
Photo: Jörn Haufe/Vodafone
Glass-ceramics for high-performance antennas, as e.g. used in the transmitter masts of mobile communications companies, represent the latest development from SCHOTT research for the fast-growing mobile communications market. Glass-ceramics are known for their extremely low losses of electromagnetic radiation. Hubertus Braun (26), a young researcher and doctoral candidate at SCHOTT has been presented with a Vodaphone grant for natural and engineering sciences in 2012. He received the grant, which is worth 5 000 euros, for his thesis which he wrote at SCHOTT in cooperation with the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.
antenna prototype for mobile communications with SCHOTT glass-ceramics
First glass-ceramic antenna prototypes have been manufactured in cooperation with the British company Sarantel.
The demand for antenna materials for the gigahertz region and respective high-frequency filters has strongly risen in recent years. The main divers for this growing interest are satellite navigation, mobile communications and microwave electronics. While doing his research at SCHOTT, physicist Hubertus Braun managed to produce an extremely homogeneous, non-porous antenna material. When compared to today’s ceramics, this novel material offers important advantages: it enables a higher degree of miniaturization, higher efficiency and lower susceptibility to interference. A patent application has been filed and SCHOTT has already started performing industrial development based on these research results.

For more information please have a look at our article in the SCHOTT solutions magazine No. 1 / 2012:
Glass-ceramics as high-performance material for gigahertz antennas and high-frequency filters (pdf)
From the kitchen to the cosmos, SCHOTT is the global leader in the area of glass-ceramics. CERAN® brand glass-ceramics have been conquering kitchens all over the world since 1973. And, with nearly zero thermal expansion, ZERODUR® glass-ceramic has served as the standard material for use in mirror substrates for the world's most powerful astronomical telescopes for over four decades. The commercialized know-how that has been amassed on this temperature-stable material in these areas is constantly further developed in SCHOTT’s research laboratories and offers options for many fields of the future, as these latest results clearly show.
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