Reliable GNSS in every orientation

Virtual Antenna® technology stabilizes GNSS radiation patterns to ensure consistent multi-band performance in space-constrained devices.

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How Ignion solves positioning challenges

Slow time-to-first-fix (TTFF) risks battery drain and failed positioning

Linearly polarized omnidirectional radiation maintains satellite visibility in any device orientation, supporting faster fix acquisition and more predictable battery usage in real deployments.

Complex multi-band support (L1, L2, L5) increases RF risk

A single wideband antenna with tunable matching covers core GNSS constellations without multiple SKUs, stacked patches, or additional RF hardware.

Performance degraded by plastics, electronics, and enclosures

Virtual Antenna® technology leverages the ground plane and optimized impedance matching to maintain stable gain and mitigate detuning near metals, batteries, and surrounding components.

Engineering Support Services

De-risk performance before certification and production

GNSS & Multi-Radio Active OTA Performance Testing

Verify real-world GNSS sensitivity, efficiency, and TTFF stability before compliance labs.

Active Device RSE Identification and Mitigation

Identify desense and spurious emissions that degrade GNSS reception and implement corrective actions early.

Antenna Matching & 3D Pattern Validation

Optimize impedance and validate omnidirectional pattern stability across L1/L2/L5 bands.

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Omnidirectional GNSS Advantage

GNSS that works in any orientation

Traditional patch antennas depend on face-up placement, slowing fixes and increasing battery drain. Virtual Antenna® technology delivers:

- 70% average GNSS efficiency on compact boards.

- Linear omnidirectional reception for consistent TTFF.

- Multi-radio integration without patch antenna limitations or other GNSS antenna types.

If space is tight or orientation is random, omnidirectional GNSS ensures faster, more reliable fixes with simpler integration.

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Validate Before Layout

Use Oxion™ to simulate multi-band antenna performance and reduce integration risk before prototypes.

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Technical Resources

Mastering Integration of the Ignion GNSS Antenna Solution

This hands-on guide walks RF engineers and product designers through the full process of integrating Ignion’s GNSS antenna solutions.
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Solving GNSS Integration Challenges in Embedded Devices

While antenna placement or module choice are often blamed, the root cause is frequently deeper: electromagnetic noise, poor matching, or improper RF layout.
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Single antenna for Cellular IoT, Bluetooth & GNSS

Ignion and Nordic are helping designers achieve this with minimum effort, shrinking the time from development to profit.
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DUO mXTEND™ GNSS Application Note

A small antenna with big performance for tracking devices.
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Cellular and GNSS in a single, small-scale antenna

One antenna component that enables GNSS and Mobile connectivity simultaneously through a single antenna package.
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GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou in a single asset-tracking antenna

Any asset tracking device’s data transmission has to be completely reliable, therefore, the antenna is a critical component in such device.
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Asset Tracking Design Guide

Step by step guide to integrate and optimize the antenna component in your tracker.
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GNSS antenna integration FAQs

1. How does a Virtual Antenna® booster receive a GNSS signal?

A Virtual Antenna® booster is a non-resonant SMD component that excites the PCB ground plane, and the ground plane does the radiating and receiving. The GNSS band is set by the passive matching network beside the component rather than by the geometry of the antenna, so the same component covers different bands by changing that network, instead of being sized to one wavelength the way a resonant antenna is.

2. What happens to GNSS reception when the device is not facing the sky?

A patch antenna has a directional pattern and has to face the sky, so tilting or inverting the device takes satellites out of that pattern and the fix degrades or drops. On a roof mount or a survey pole, where orientation is fixed, that costs nothing. In a device that tumbles inside a container, sits in a pocket or gets installed wherever the fitter can reach, it costs the fix. Small antennas are omnidirectional as a matter of physics, so a Virtual Antenna® booster receives from satellites across the sky regardless of how the device lands.

3. Why does time to first fix vary so much for the same device in different places?

A device that wakes up far from its last fix cannot reuse its stored satellite orbit data, so it waits on a fresh copy broadcast from the satellites themselves, and with no cellular coverage it cannot pull that data over the network instead. Buildings, trees and vehicle structure block or reflect what does arrive, and a receiver this close to the noise floor feels every decibel of antenna efficiency lost. Ignion measured a 107 × 50 mm board carrying a DUO mXTEND™ booster and a u-blox EVK-M8N in a moving vehicle. Open highway gave the fastest fix, city and forest canopy the slowest, and under the seat was the worst of three mounting positions.

4. Why does a cellular transmitter degrade GNSS reception?

A GNSS receiver works near the noise floor on a signal that arrived from orbit, while a cellular radio on the same board transmits at up to 23 dBm a few centimetres away. Energy couples from the transmit path into the GNSS path and raises the noise the receiver has to pull the satellite signal out of, which is why a device can show good GNSS efficiency on the bench and lose its fix as soon as the modem transmits.

5. Where should the GNSS antenna sit relative to the cellular antenna?

Each radio needs its own component and its own matching network, placed apart on the board. On a tracker board, put the GNSS component near the middle of the long edge or in the opposite corner from the cellular antenna, which is what the Oxion™ platform recommends when each radio has its own module. STMicroelectronics' ST87M01 reference design keeps GNSS alongside NB-IoT on a 60 × 90 mm board built this way, averaging 75.7% GNSS efficiency with the US band matching network fitted and 83.5% with the EMEA one.

6. How much does nearby metal or the enclosure cost at GNSS frequencies?

Ignion measured a 107 × 50 mm board carrying a DUO mXTEND™ booster on GNSS, with the board sitting against each material. Against 67.5% in free space:
- against wood, 63.6%

- against concrete, 60.3%

- against metal, 23.6%

- in body contact, 4.0%

Move the board 20 mm clear and metal recovers to 61.9%, the body to 40.6%. Hold 20 mm from metal where the mechanics allow, and retune the matching network for the final housing.

7. Can one component carry GNSS and a second radio on a dense board?

A DUO mXTEND™ measures 7 × 3 × 2 mm and needs a clearance area of only 8 × 4 mm, barely more than its own footprint, which is what makes it fit where there is no room left. It runs two ports, GNSS on one and a second radio such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi on the other. Eview GPS used it for GNSS and LoRa in a 53 × 30 mm emergency pendant.

8. How can GNSS efficiency be checked before the layout is committed?

Submit PCB size, the GNSS bands and the placement options to the Oxion™ platform and it returns predicted efficiency, a matching network topology and a bill of materials. Ignion then reviews the Gerber files before anything is built, checking antenna position, clearance area and matching layout. At prototype, measure efficiency in an anechoic chamber and retune the matching network if the housing has shifted it.