Proactively solving field issues, mitigating OPEX costs

Cellular antennas were failing due to a signal issue caused by passive intermodulation (PIM). Our engineering team developed a novel solution, working with a leading F1 team to simulate the issue and demonstrate our solution worked. To minimise OPEX costs, Filtronic developed a seed stock, so the upgrade could be a continual process and at the pace required by our customer.

The solution

• Material compatibility issue identified requiring specialised fittings and external consultant validation.
• Quickly built up a seed stock of 100 units. Retrofitted > 100 units per month and upgraded >1k antennas in a year.

The result

• Filtronics agile response, material analysis and diagnostics saved time and cost for our customer.
• Using our highly skilled workforce pool we ramped production and assembly to meet customer demand.

The challenge

• Cellular antennas were failing due to a signal issue caused by passive intermodulation (PIM).
• PIM occurred in hot and humid locations.
• This worsened where the antenna was using multiple bands.