A real chip antenna cross reference decision needs six fields: band, footprint, gain, ground-plane and keep-out, matching network, and radiation pattern. We checked Walsin Technology’s 44-row antenna export against that list: it states band, footprint and connector type directly, VSWR partially, and has no column at all for ground-plane, matching network or radiation pattern.
Venatech Limited, an authorised Walsin distributor in Hong Kong, holds Walsin Technology (Walsin)’s full antenna parametric export, Walsin_Antenna_ALL.xlsx, 44 rows and ten columns, and no Walsin antenna datasheet for any part in the range. Crossing an MLCC against this export is a clean field-by-field match on dielectric, voltage, tolerance and case size. Crossing a chip antenna is not that, and this post measures exactly why — field by field, against the export itself rather than against general knowledge of antennas.
What does a real chip antenna cross reference decision actually need?
Six things, and only two of them live in a ten-column antenna export. Band and footprint tell you whether a part physically fits. Gain and VSWR tell you how it performs on Walsin’s own reference board. Ground-plane and keep-out, the matching network values, and the radiation pattern tell you how it will actually perform on your board — and that third group is where a real decision lives, because a chip antenna borrows your layout as part of its own structure.
| Decision field | Why a chip antenna cross needs it | Published in Walsin_Antenna_ALL.xlsx? |
|---|---|---|
| Working frequency band | Determines fit before anything else | Yes — all 44 rows |
| Footprint / dimension | Determines whether it fits the enclosure | Yes — all 44 rows |
| Termination / connector type | Determines whether it mounts at all | Yes, directly — 22 of 38 real antennas, see below |
| Peak gain | Manufacturer best case on a reference board | Partial — 36 of 44 rows |
| VSWR | Manufacturer best case on a reference board | Partial — 36 of 44 rows |
| Ground-plane size and keep-out | Decides whether the part resonates on your board at all | No column exists |
| Matching network component values | Pulls the part back on frequency on your layout | No column exists |
| Radiation pattern | Decides realised gain in the orientation the product is used | No column exists |
That is 2 of 6 real decision fields stated without qualification, 2 stated as a reference-board figure rather than a design figure, and 4 with no column at all. We have not seen this scored against a capacitor-style field list anywhere else — most antenna posts, including our own, describe the missing fields one at a time rather than counting them against what a cross actually requires.
Which of those 6 fields does Walsin’s export actually publish?
Two cleanly, two partly, and nothing at all for the rest — and we checked every one of the 44 rows to say so. Band and footprint are populated on all 44 rows with no exceptions. Peak gain and VSWR are populated on 36 of 44, blank on the remaining 8 — the two NFC/WPC coil parts and the six cable assemblies and connectors, which is an established finding of ours. Connector type sits in its own pair of columns, Connector 1 and Connector 2, and that is the field we measured freshly for this post.
We parsed Connector 1 across the 38 rows that are real antennas rather than cable assemblies or connectors: it is populated on 22 of 38, and blank on exactly the 16 rows belonging to the four families that mount with no connector lead at all — chip, metal, NFC and WPC. Of the 22 populated rows, 13 read IPEX, 4 read Reverse SMA, 2 read SMA, 2 read Strip & Tin and 1 reads Standard SMA. Connector 2 is blank on every one of the 38 real antennas; it only carries a second value on the six cable assembly and connector rows that are not antennas at all.
Why does a blank connector cell mean something different from a blank gain cell?
Because the two blanks have opposite causes, and conflating them is exactly how a mechanical cross goes wrong. A blank Connector 1 cell means the part has no connector — it solders or sits bare on the board, and the blank is a complete, reliable answer. A blank Peak Gain cell does not mean “no gain” — on the NFC and WPC rows it means the part is a coil specified by inductance instead, and on the cable assembly and connector rows it means the row is not an antenna at all.
| Column | Blank means | Rows blank | Reliable to read as “not applicable”? |
|---|---|---|---|
Connector 1 |
No connector; solder or bare-lead mount | 16 of 38 real antennas | Yes — matches the family exactly |
Peak Gain |
Either a coil part (2 rows) or a non-antenna row (6 rows) | 8 of 44 total rows | No — two different causes behind one blank |
Ground-plane / keep-out |
No column exists — every cell would read blank | all 44 | Not a column, so the question does not apply |
That third row is the one that matters for a cross reference. A capacitor cross can treat a populated field as “stated” and a blank as “not applicable” almost everywhere, because the schema is narrow and consistent. An antenna schema mixes both meanings in the same ten columns, and the ground-plane, matching-network and radiation-pattern fields are not blank cells at all — they are columns Walsin’s export does not carry, so there is nothing to read as blank in the first place.
What does a field-by-field cross look like for one real 2.4 GHz requirement?
Clean on the three fields the export has, and silent on the three it does not. We set the requirement as “a 2.4 GHz chip antenna, no external connector, smallest footprint available” and checked four real Walsin parts against it on every field the schema offers plus the three it does not.
| Part number | Band | Footprint (mm) | Connector | Peak gain | Ground-plane / keep-out | Match / mismatch vs the stated requirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RFANT3216120A1T |
2.4~2.5 GHz | 3.2 × 1.6 × 1.2 | none | 2 dBi | not published | Match on band, footprint, connector — smallest in the range; unknown on ground-plane and matching network |
RFECA3216060A1T |
2.4~2.5 GHz | 3.2 × 1.6 × 0.6 | none | 2 dBi | not published | Match on band, connector, same gain — mismatch: 0.6 mm height, VSWR 2.1 not 2.0 |
RFANT9520120A0T |
2.4~2.5 GHz | 9.5 × 2 × 1.2 | none | 2 dBi | not published | Match on band, connector, gain — mismatch: 9.5 mm long, not the smallest footprint |
RFPCA460605NNAB301 |
2.4~2.5 GHz | 46.5 × 6 × 2.1 | Strip & Tin | > 3 dBi | not published | Mismatch — a connector-bearing PCB antenna, not a connectorless chip part, 46.5 mm long |
Three candidates match the stated requirement on every field the export actually carries. None of the four rows carries anything that tells you whether that match holds once the part is on your board, because ground-plane, keep-out and matching network are not columns in this file for any part. The honest next step is the same for all three: request the datasheet, define the keep-out, and fit a matching-network footprint next to the feed — covered at method level in choosing a 2.4 GHz chip antenna.
Why can’t a capacitor cross-reference method be reused for an antenna?
Because a capacitor’s decisive fields are closed-form numbers inside the export, and an antenna’s are not. An MLCC cross matches dielectric code, rated voltage, tolerance and case size — four fields, all populated, all numeric or categorical, all inside the parametric file. A chip antenna cross matches band and footprint the same way, but the field that actually decides whether the part works — realised efficiency in your enclosure — is a property of your board, not of the part, and no export column states it because it cannot be stated independently of a design.
That is also why we will not tell you one antenna part is equivalent to another. We will show you where the export matches and where it goes silent, and leave the ground-plane and matching-network questions to the datasheet request rather than guess at them.
What should you ask for before you cross a chip antenna?
Three things, in order: the datasheet’s ground-plane reference drawing, the matching-network bill of materials for the reference board, and the radiation pattern plot — none of which sits in the 44-row export, and all of which Walsin can supply against a specific part number.
- Cross the band, footprint and connector first. That part of the decision is mechanical and the export answers it directly — the cross-reference tool does this across your whole BOM in one pass, decoding 18 manufacturers’ part numbers against 800,000+ crossable Walsin part numbers.
- Ask us for the datasheet before you lay out copper. We hold 28 Walsin datasheets, 451 pages, and none of them is an antenna sheet. Your request is what puts the antenna line on our list to Walsin.
- Check ready stock — a dated snapshot as at 23 September 2026 — before you commit a production slot, since antennas sit outside that snapshot entirely.
The short version
A real chip antenna cross reference needs six fields: band, footprint, connector type, gain, ground-plane/keep-out and matching network, plus radiation pattern for the realised performance. Walsin’s 44-row export states band, footprint and connector type directly, states gain and VSWR as a reference-board figure on 36 of 44 rows, and carries no column at all for ground-plane, matching network or radiation pattern. We checked the connector columns specifically for this post: populated on 22 of 38 real antennas, blank on exactly the 16 rows with no connector lead at all — a blank that means something different from a blank gain cell, which is the trap a mechanical cross falls into if it reads every blank the same way.
Send us your 2.4 GHz or sub-GHz antenna requirement and we will cross it on every field the export actually holds, mark every field it does not, and put the ground-plane and matching-network request to Walsin against your exact part number. Qualification stays with you.
For the full band count behind this export, see chip antenna selection: 14 of Walsin’s 19 antenna bands hold exactly one part. The full line is on the Walsin antenna range page.
Frequently asked questions
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What fields does a real chip antenna cross reference need?
Six: working frequency band, footprint, connector or termination type, peak gain, VSWR, and the three board-dependent fields — ground-plane and keep-out, matching network component values, and radiation pattern. The first three are mechanical and the next two are manufacturer reference-board figures; the last group decides real-world performance and is not in Walsin’s export at all.
Does Walsin’s antenna export state the connector type directly?
Yes, in two columns, Connector 1 and Connector 2. We checked all 38 real antenna rows: Connector 1 is populated on 22 of them, and blank on exactly the 16 rows belonging to the four families that mount without any connector — chip, metal, NFC and WPC antennas. Connector 2 is blank on every real antenna row.
Does a blank cell in Walsin’s antenna export always mean the field does not apply?
No. A blank Connector 1 cell reliably means no connector. A blank Peak Gain cell does not mean no gain — it means either a coil part specified by inductance instead, or a cable assembly or connector row that is not an antenna at all. The two blanks have different causes and should not be read the same way.
What does Walsin’s export not publish for any chip antenna?
Ground-plane size, keep-out clearance, matching-network component values and radiation pattern. None of those four has a column in the 44-row, ten-column export, for any of the 44 part numbers. Peak gain and VSWR are published, but only as a manufacturer figure on a reference board, not as a figure for your own layout.
Can three different Walsin chip antennas all match one 2.4 GHz requirement?
On the fields the export carries, yes. RFANT3216120A1T, RFECA3216060A1T and RFANT9520120A0T all match a 2.4 GHz, connectorless chip antenna requirement on band and connector type, and differ on footprint and VSWR. None of the three publishes a ground-plane or matching-network figure, so the match is mechanical, not electrical.
Why can’t an MLCC cross-reference method be used for an antenna?
Because an MLCC’s decisive fields — dielectric code, rated voltage, tolerance, case size — are closed-form numbers inside the parametric export. An antenna’s decisive field, realised efficiency on your own board, is a property of the design rather than the part, so no export column can state it independently of a layout.
Does Venatech hold a Walsin antenna datasheet to fill these gaps?
No, for any part in the antenna range. Venatech holds 28 Walsin datasheets covering MLCC and chip resistor families, and none for antennas. Every figure in this post is read from the parametric export, and a ground-plane or matching-network request goes to Walsin against your specific part number.