LASER Direct Structuring (LDS) for surface conforming Antennas and wiring

22 Mar, 2021 07:35 PM

After researching teardowns of various cell phones, I was interested in finding out the processes involved for the antennas that are formed over the plastic injection speaker phone chambers inside each of the very narrow cell phones.

https://hermesiphone.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/popular-science-what-is-the-lds-antenna/

The process is called LASER Direct Structuring (LDS) and is the latest manufacturing method that was developed in Germany years ago, but is being embraced as the defacto standard for very tight surface forming antenna structures :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molded_interconnect_device#Laser_Direct_Structuring_(LDS)

Also there are research projects that have been done in the past :

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Innovative-LDS-antenna-for-4G-applications-Sonnerat-Pilard/3b2e13a2dcc1955c8ee5132ffac9b1b16839b29f/

And the Mitsubshi Xantar materials have been available for a while now :

https://www.pressreleasefinder.com/Mitsubishi_Engineering-Plastics_Corporation/MEPPR005/en/

Steven Minichiello

Mar 23, 2021

TE Connectivity also does LDS and 2-part molding for advanced antenna design :

https://www.te.com/usa-en/products/antennas/custom-antennas.html

Steven Minichiello

Mar 23, 2021

One of the leaders in antenna designs, Taoglas, is offering this as a full custom design solution ;