NRF8001 antenna tuning

[tilitililili]

Hello!

I've developed a board with NRF8001 module mounted on it. Antenna on the board is much longer than in reference designs, so I can change the length. I also can add shunt capacitor/inductor. The problem is that I don't have a network analyzer. So is it real to tune the antenna without using special instruments?

[nick]

Hello

I just designed a board and chanced the reference design a little bit (different component layout with chip antenna). I got respectable range of 10 meter. I made the mistake to use 6mil trace instead of the suggest 8mil in the pcb reference design. So i hope my next board will be better.

Try to keep you're design as close as possible to the reference layout and you will do fine without network analyzer if you are happy with a near perfect range (just for hobby).

Calculate you're trace impendance here: emclab.mst.edu/.../index.html

My Eagle files for my homemade PCB. The board is made of FR4 0.8mm thick NRF51822.rar. Maybe you can send your files if you would like some comment on your design. I also made a new design without my errors. So don't use the layout for your design.

Nick

[nick]

It is strange that you don't have any ble signal. Why did you use 12pf capacitors for your 16Mhz crystal instead of the 15pf in the reference design of nordic? I heard that the timing is very critical in order to get the bluetooth to function right.

Your layout looks good and seems to be almost the same as the reference board layout. Also did you added the shunt capacitor just on guess? maybe remove it en place the right capacitors for the crystal. is netc12_1 your pcb antenna or just the trace to your antenna?

Hope you get it to work properly