antennaembeddedwifi
I have a 2014 T-Mobile ZTE Hotspot which is no longer holding a signal. After tearing down the hotspot it is NOT clear to me which hardware component is the wifi antenna.
I have posted pictures below hoping someone could call out which component is the wifi antenna.
Thank you in advance!
For reference the photos below are of a T-Mobile 2014 ZTE Hotspot Model: Li3728T42P3h774771
Here is a detailed view of what is inside one of the plastic caps which could be the antenna.
They put them where ever they can find an opening and try to do a good job tuning them. Form comes first at apple ;) Take a look at this, they've mounted one antenna just inside the opening for the optical drive on a recent macbook pro.
Also they have a patent for a logo antenna
I once did a tear down and comparison of a bunch of apple products antennas and they performed really well compared to others in the field. Although there was that little problem with the iphone ;) So I think form comes first and then it's up to the EE team to be creative and figure out how they can get it to work.
On other cheaper laptops I think you'll find they just hide them behind plastic inserts.
I would consider a patch antenna. With a thick enough substrate you can cover the entire Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz band. It has a pretty decent front to back ratio (>10 dB) and an almost onmi hemispherical pattern.
While it is impossible to say for sure from you description, it doesn't sound like the antenna is the problem. If it were, you would have had a lot more problems in Tx than Rx (Tx is usually at least 50 dB above Rx). The fact that you are having problems in Rx makes me suspect some sort of coupling between your LNA and analog circuitry. When you put absorbers, you are lowering the signal level in the LNA (or further down the receive chain) and decrease the coupling.
Best Answer
The pictures aren't very clear, but it appears the antennas (yes, multiple antennas) are not on the board itself. They would seem to be in the back cover and/or the clear plastic caps with flexible circuit boards inside (the orange colored stuff inside the clear plastic parts.)
I say this because I see 5 parts that appear to be RF connectors. Those are the small silver squares with a round black thing - the black things have holes, so they would seem to be connectors rather than buttons.
Each of the apparent RF connectors has a set of spring contacts next to it. I expect those are the connections to the antennas in the housing. If you look at the clear plastic parts, they have matching connections. The flexible circuits inside are then the antennas.
There's probably matching spots on the back housing for some of the connections, with antennas embedded in the housing.