Join LinkedIn influencer and senior antenna engineer, Katerina Galitskaya, and Ignion's Director of Engineering, Sifiso Gambahaya, as they expose the realities of integrating an antenna in a wireless device. Learn from their experiences (and the mistakes of others) about how pretty simulation plots turn messy after enclosures, batteries, and certifications.
Overview
If you're engineering a wireless product—whether in wearables, metering, tracking, or medical systems—you know that beautiful performance curves in free space rarely survive final integration. In this 60-minute technical discussion, Katerina Galitskaya and Ignion's Director of Engineering, Sifiso Gambahaya, will explore why antennas often fail in real devices, and what design pitfalls even seasoned engineers still overlook.
What you’ll learn:
- How geometry simplifications, environmental assumptions, or omitting plastics, batteries, and user interaction lead to misleading virtual performance
- Real-world failure modes — detuning, mismatch, ground plane constraints, and material effects (metal vs plastic) that frequently undermine performance
- Bridging virtual to physical — validation steps you should do before hardware freeze, modeling tips (PCB layer stackups, other components, enclosures), and when to engage antenna experts
- Case studies from the field — examples where overconfidence in models led to schedule delays or rework, and how methodical corrections restored viability
This webinar is for technical professionals designing wireless devices who want concrete, immediately applicable insight—beyond high-level theory— into making antennas survive in the real world.
Key Takeaways
- Recognize and avoid the most common antenna integration pitfalls early.
- Learn how geometry simplifications, environmental assumptions, or omitting plastics, batteries, and user interaction lead to misleading virtual performance.
- Use the webinar as a reference to advocate for better antenna practices in actual projects/teams.
Speakers
An active member of EM simulation community, Katerina Galitskaya writes a technical blog for The Microwave Journal and posts weekly insights on LinkedIn. She is a senior antenna engineer with more than 10-year experience in IoT, wearable and base station antenna design.
Born in Zimbabwe and raised in the U.S. and India, Sifiso Gambahaya has more than 20 years of experience in the design, testing and manufacturing of RF products for commercial and military applications. Some of the companies he has worked for include Ericsson, CommScope and Qorvo. Gambahaya has had tremendous experience in antenna and RF development having worked in South Africa, China, Taiwan, the U.K., the U.S., Ireland, the Netherlands and now Spain during his much-travelled professional career.