, including its own simulator, which allows high-performance antennas to be created rapidly to suit the specific needs of product developers. The company's own anechoic chambers and other test facilities allow samples to be provided rapidly to clients for evaluation and product prototyping. The design can be provided for OEMs to manufacture themselves or produced by Antenova in conjunction with its volume-manufacturing partners. Antenova says it is also working on HDA technology with developer partners engaged in almost every segment of the wireless industry. 6.10.2 Nanotube Antenna Tiny antennas, thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair, could soon lead to better performing mobile phones and other radio-based devices. Research at the University of Southern California (USC) shows that minus- cule antennas, in the form of carbon nanotube transistors, can dramatically enhance the processing of electrical signals. "No one knows exactly how these little tubes work or even if they will work out in manufacturing, but they are surprisingly good at detecting electrical signals," says Bart Kosko, a professor in USC's electrical engineering department and the project's lead researcher. "Once we figure out all the parameters that are needed to fine tune them, both physically and chemically, we hope to turn these tubes into powerful little antennas." If all goes well, the tubes could start appearing in consumer prod- ucts within five to ten years, Kosko predicts. Kosko's research is focused on a well-known but counterintuitive theory called "stochastic resonance" that claims noise, or unwanted signals, can actu- ally improve the detection of faint electrical signals. Kosko set out to show that the theory was applicable at the nanoscale. Under controlled laboratory conditions, graduate student Ian Lee generated a sequence of faint electrical signals ranging from weak to strong. In combination with noise, the faint signals were then exposed to devices with and without carbon nanotubes. The signals were signifi