Spray-on antenna

[pnear]

So, who's going to be the first in this forum to try out the new "antenna in a can" product?

From http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...ncol;cnetRiver

It sounds like a particularly suspicious late-night infomercial: Spray your way to a better wireless signal! Improve your range! Save battery! Transmit over great distances under water!
But Chamtech's spray-on antenna is a real product with some impressive claims. It can be sprayed on almost any surface, even trees and orange barrels. It doesn't suck up power. It works in a mysterious nanotech way.

This fuzzy image shows the first test of the spray antenna with the material applied to a tree. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)
Here's how I imagine the antenna process goes:
Step 1: Spray antenna material on surface.
Step 2: Connect phone to material.
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Make a phone call to the moon.
Chamtech co-founder Anthony Sutera imagines a world where wireless antenna towers are replaced with nano-paint on walls, and issues like iPhone Antennagate are a thing of the past.
"We have come up with a material that when you spray it on, it lays out just in the right pattern and all of these little capacitors charge and discharge extremely quickly in real time and they don't create any heat," Sutera says in a video presentation about the product.
One of Chamtech's tests turned an RFID chip with a 5-foot range into an RFID chip with a 700-foot range. The company lists a spray antenna kit on its site, but pricing for the public is not revealed. The U.S. government is reportedly already playing with the new material.
If all these claims bear out, then I can see everybody wanting to get their hands on a fresh can full of antenna. My only question is where in the grocery store it will be stocked: with the spray cheese or with the gold food paint?

-Pete

[JamesK]

5 foot range to 700??? Or something painted on a wall replaces towers? Sounds like nonsense to me.

[300ohm]

It does sound a lot like the Ron Popeil spray on hair ads, heh.

Conductive paint has been around for a long time.

[Janitor Tzap]

Yes,

This sounds too good to be true.

But, I remember seeing an article about some lab that was working on "Capacitive Paint".

But not for use as a Antenna, but as a cheap paint on Solar Cell.
Thus, a home owner could paint his house with it, and effectively make his house a Solar Power Generator.

Last I heard, it was this still in the testing stages.

Edit:
I found the video about the press conference of Charmtech Enterprises on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=4efE_gO9lFo

Hmm......
Maybe not snake oil.


Signed: Janitor Tzap

[holl_ands]

They forgot to mention the all-important TEMPLATE that constrains the conductive spray pattern
into the shape of the desired antenna. You can get better results with Mylar Tape, since there
will be a lot of loss in the conductive spray, making it unusable for a high power Transmitter:
http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles...=523&zoneid=58
"Capacitive Paint" is just an added touch of fancy obfuscation.....

[300ohm]

The actual paint shown in that video reminds me of real metal flake paint or the galvanized paint that Pep Boys sells that has real zinc particles in it.

No details were shown on how they connected the devices to the sprayed on paint.

[JamesK]

You can get better results with Mylar Tape

Mylar is plastic and therefore somewhat useless as an antenna. Of course, that still doesn't keep it from being better than that spray.

[300ohm]

But, I remember seeing an article about some lab that was working on "Capacitive Paint".

But not for use as a Antenna, but as a cheap paint on Solar Cell.
Thus, a home owner could paint his house with it, and effectively make his house a Solar Power Generator.

Yeah, I read that article too. IIRC, the main problem with it is its extremely short shelf life. It seemed to me that problem could be overcome by making it a 2/3/4 or more part paint, like epoxy paint, mixing it up on site.

[holl_ands]

Antennas embedded into garments have been around for several years now, such as:
http://www.proetex.org/Publications/...20Hertleer.pdf
http://gizmodo.com/5372521/fabric-an...tasies-reality
http://www.marineinsight.com/marine/...ations-at-sea/

Including a Jacket with Quad-Diversity Antennas (MIMO) for a much better Wi-Fi connection:
http://rfalliance.org/Nov%2009%20Con...,%20Purdue.pdf
And they provide meaningful design RESULTS....

More info re Spray-On Antenna is being posted here:
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/general...on-antenna/30/

[ScaryBob]

Aluminum heating duct tape might works as well. Just don't expect to peel it off easily. I think I'll stick to household copper wire for now. Works like a charm for small and indoor antennas. My M4 made with solid #10 is still picking up signals like a pro and shows no sign of damage. It's light and small enough to sit on the end of a 10' pole as well.

[holl_ands]

Just saw it on G4TV...from three years ago....to go along with your Quad-Diversity
Wi-Fi Antenna Jacket, a pair of Jeans with Keyboard & Mouse built-in....for true mobility:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/23/k...b-your-crotch/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucest...7605496145298/