Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Turning Your Phone Into The Antenna Itself

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 01:51:28 -0400

Turning Your Phone Into The Antenna Itself

Contributed by mmasnick on Fri, Apr 16 2004

As the various handset makers have tried to hide a phones antenna as
much as possible, one company has come up with something of a unique
solution. They've created a plastic that builds the antenna directly
into the casing of the phone as the material "conducts heat, electricity
and radio-frequency energy nearly as well as copper," but can be mixed
into plastic and formed into just about any possible shape. They believe
the material, called Electriplast has many other potential uses from
improving the efficiency of LED lighting to creating in-floor radiant
heating. It certainly sounds like the technology has a ton of potential
to be very useful - but as with many new materials technologies, it
would be nice to have a bit more proof concerning how well it really
works.

www,techdirt.com

======================================================================================

Friday, April 16, 2004

An invention in Bellingham could alter your cell phone

By DAN RICHMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A Bellingham firm says it has created a plastic that can turn cell
phones into their own antennas, resulting in fewer dropped calls, better
battery life and clearer reception.

The highly conductive resin, dubbed Electriplast, could also improve the
efficiency of LED lighting, in-floor radiant heating, defibrillators and
pacemakers, said its inventor, Thomas Aisenbrey, who is chief technology
officer at Integral Technologies Inc.

Antennas molded out of Electriplast
and mounted on military vehicles would
be harder to see and so tougher to
disable, and on cars, they'd be
unobtrusive.

Electriplast isn't on the market yet, but
trials are going on at four Fortune 100
companies, and major handset makers
have expressed strong interest, said
Aisenbrey, who holds two patents on
the substance and has 44 more
pending.

The inexpensive material, also known as Plastenna, conducts heat,
electricity and radio- frequency energy nearly as well as copper, yet it
can be mixed with rigid or flexible plastics and formed into just about
any shape plastic can take on, he said.
"My gut's telling me this is going to change the electronics world,"
said Aisenbrey, 46.
An independent testing lab verified some of Aisenbrey's claims.

"He could show that a cell phone modified with his antenna was up to
twice as efficient as with a normal antenna," said Lothar Schmidt, a
technical manager for Cetecom Inc. of Milpitas, Calif.

For the chief executive of Integral Technologies, which hasn't turned a
profit since it was founded in 1996, Electriplast represents a bright
future.

"I think it will rock the wireless world, quite frankly," said Bill
Robinson, who runs the company from an office in Vancouver, B.C. "It's
fun to be in the position we're at, finally."

The company, which is traded over the counter, has a market
capitalization of about $31 million, with 5,000 shareholders.
At one time, it had 20 employees. But when Aisenbrey, who said he has
been tinkering with electronics since age 6, arrived there from
Panasonic three years ago, he fired the rest of the engineering staff
because of their inefficiency. Now it has seven employees.

A high school grad with certificates in electronics and sound
engineering, Aisenbrey came up with Electriplast 30 months ago "as a
fluke thing" while trying to remedy design flaws in an antenna the
company had been shipping.

A patent search revealed nothing like it, clearing the way for intensive
development, third-party testing and commercialization perhaps as early
as this year.

"Without a doubt, we want to drive this company into a multimillion
business,"
Aisenbrey said. "I'm not here for the fresh air."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/169324_antenna16.html?source=techdirt

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