June 11, 2015 — Wi-Fi antennas will soon be in fluorescent tubes – seriously. Well, I’ve heard stranger things. And if it turns out to be practical, the problem of Wi-Fi dead spots may have just found the answer.
Some researchers at the University Teknologi MARA in Malaysia managed to use the ionized gas in a common fluorescent light tube to create an antenna for a Wi-Fi Internet router. How cool is that?
The prototype they came up with is a fluorescent tube that connects to the router through a tuned wire coil contained in a sleeve slipped over one end. The coil passes the router’s radio signal through the glass of the fluorescent tube and into the plasma.
We’ve known plasma has conductive properties. What these guys found out was that the amount of plasma in a 62 cm bulb seems to hit the sweet spot. The tests showed that this fabrication can be used just like a regular antenna. Then they did an experiment using a router to demonstrate. Well, one never knows what those little men in lab coats are coming up with now-a-days.
There are some interesting implications if this can be turned commercial. Like literally every potential indoor and outdoor fluorescent bulb has the potential to become a Wi-Fi antenna – boom! No more dead spots!! It will be interesting to see if this grows legs.