Comprehensive Analysis of Xiaomi Mi 8 GNSS Antenna Performance

Abstract

The interest in precise point positioning techniques using smartphones increased with the launch of the world’s first dual-frequency L1/L5 GNSS smartphone, Xiaomi Mi 8. The smartphone GNSS antenna is low-cost, sensitive to multipath, and limited by physical space and design. The main purpose of this work is to determine the mechanical location and antenna performance in terms of radiation pattern in an anechoic chamber using a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and robotic positioning platform by varying the elevation and azimuth angles between the transmitter and smartphone GNSS antennas; the power received and satellite visibility are developed in an outdoor scenario. The results show a Planar Inverted-F Antenna with an omnidirectional radiation pattern without gain. The L1/E1/B1 and L5/E5a/B2a GNSS antennas are physically located at the top face of the screen, with dimensions of 48 × 17 mm and 60 × 13 mm, respectively. With the screen with line-of-sight toward the sky, L5 satellites have a better signal–noise ratio (SNR), unlike the back side, which loses 99% of the data in the PPP solution. Under multipath scenarios, the L1 GNSS smartphone antenna works with 25% less power than the GPS user segment recommendation, showing high sensitivity to track weak signals.