Taoglas Launches CRPA Reference Design for Resilient GNSS Systems

Taoglas has introduced a four-element controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) reference design for GNSS equipment operating in environments exposed to jamming, radio-frequency (RF) interference, spoofing, and multipath. The reference design, based on commercial off-the-shelf antennas, are supplied with design files, offering engineers greater flexibility in the selection and integration of the antenna configuration that best meets their requirements.

Designing a CRPA is a complex RF engineering challenge that involves antenna element design, isolation, calibration, beamforming, and overall system optimization, Taoglas said. The new reference design reduces the development risk and accelerates the evaluation of CRPA-based GNSS systems

Array configuration and anti-jam performance depend on the operating environment, application, and threat model, Taoglas said. The reference design combines multiband antenna elements with RF front-end circuitry to provide engineers with a starting point for developing applications such as mission-critical navigation, uncrewed aerial vehicles, autonomous systems, precision agriculture, surveying and geodesy, maritime navigation, public safety, critical infrastructure, critical communications and GNSS timing systems.

Reliable positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) has become critical to a growing range of systems, Taoglas said, with CRPA performance influenced by a number of factors, including element isolation, antenna efficiency, phase-center stability, calibration accuracy, array geometry, and integration with modern GNSS receivers and anti-jam processing platforms.

GNSS signals reach receivers at very low power levels, which makes them susceptible to interference. RF filters can block signals outside the satellite's frequency bands, but do little to reduce interference inside the bands. But this is solved by a CRPA that uses multiple antenna elements with spatial signal processing, reducing the sensitivity in the direction of the interference and reflected signals.

The reference design provides the passive antenna and active electronics part of a complete CRPA system, which helps suppress low-elevation multipath reflections, Taoglas said. These multipath reflections can degrade positioning accuracy in urban, semi-urban, and vehicle-based deployments.

"A four-element CRPA architecture can form up to three independent nulls, depending on the overall RF design, processing platform, and operating environment," Taoglas said.

Signals reach each antenna element with differences in amplitude and phase. For example, a connected multichannel receiver and adaptive processor can adjust and combine the four signals to reduce antenna sensitivity toward an interference source.

The CRPA reference design helps designers evaluate anti-jam GNSS architectures. The design provides three multipath GNSS patch antenna options: the Accura GVLB258.A for L1/L5 applications, HP2258.A for L1/L2 applications, and HP25258.A for L1/L2/L5 applications. The design also includes TFM.110A multi-band GNSS front-end modules and supporting circuitry The antennas support GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and BeiDou reception across the different GNSS bands.

Each antenna channel uses a TFM.110A RF front-end module with surface acoustic wave filters and two low-noise amplifier stages. The filters attenuate out-of-band signals, and the amplifiers boost weak satellite signals before processing. Taoglas specifies more than 25 dB of gain across the supported bands.

Taoglas provides Altium PCB layouts, 2D drawings, and 3D models for the board. They are available in three form factors, measuring 110 mm, 150 mm, and 170 mm in diameter. The board size affects antenna separation and ground plane dimensions.

Taoglas will demonstrate the reference design at electronica 2026, November 10-13, in Hall C2, Booth 516, at Messe München, Germany.

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