UWB transceiver mounted near metal

[AndrewDojo]

Considering using the decawave DW1000 radio system for a M2M application but there is a need to mount the device on a metal chassis - a problem that has to be dealt with.

The radio chip covers frequencies between 3GHz and 7GHz.

1. In designing the housing for the system, what would be the minimum acceptable distance to put between the antenna and the chassis?

2. Is there any type of material that could be placed between the antenna and the chassis that might reduce the effect of the metalwork near the antenna?

[AF6LJ]

I would think that if you had the antenna a couple of wavelenghts above the metal surface you should be fine.  Lets Three GHZ that is 30 CM.
If it is a horizontally polarized yagi I would think even 30cm would be fine.

[AndrewDojo]

Thanks.

The board uses a chip antenna.  Spacing of 30cm is not a practical option.  More likely to be 30mm. 

This is why I was looking for options on intervening materials to minimise the problem.  I am familiar with such materials used for 13.56MHz RFID, but that is a very long way from 3GHz+.

Someone suggested teflon sheet/board.

[AF6LJ]

Does the chip antenna have a ground plane under it?
Have a photo?

[AndrewDojo]

Details from the product datasheet attached.

[Georgi]

Why don't you use the dipole Antenna from the Evaluation Board ? I suggest also contacting Decawave and asking about this. I also worked with the DW1000 and asked them tons of questions and they answered them all. Also there is a  Decawave forum on Google+, maybe it will be a good idea to look there too.
Georgi

[AF6LJ]

It seems to me they are fairly clear about keeping the antenna clear of metal objects.
Because the antenna isn't in free space to begin with it is compromised from the get-go. This is true with many RF products these days. Even the antenna in your smart phone is compromised to a significant degree simply because the people want the antenna out of sight.

You may have to work a degree of signal degradation into your project.