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  • Case ID: 364105
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Load switch for active GNSS antenna on custom board

Rocio Cabral

Hi! I'm designing a custom board based on nRF9160 and I have some questions regarding the GNSS antenna circuitry. The antenna I'm planning to use is Molex 206640, as I saw it is recommended by Nordic. I checked the nRF91 Series Antenna and RF Interface Guidelines, and it recommends including a load switch for active antennas (also, I'm using two different antennas for LTE and GNSS):

I checked the nRF9160 DK schematic files, since it includes a connector for an external active GNSS antenna, and it does not seem to include this load switch:

So my question is: am I interpreting something wrong, or why is the load switch not included? Also, could you recommend a model of load switch to use?

Regards,

Rocío

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  • +1

    Hi,

    Thanks for reaching out. The load switch recommendation is primarily intended to prevent continuous battery drain by cutting power to the active antenna when the GNSS receiver is idle, using a load switch controlled by the COEX0 signal (which is configured to go high during GNSS receive). Whereas the nRF9160 DK is a development and testing platform rather than an ultra low power end product.

    Regarding your second question, you can use any standard load switch like TI TPS22917 which has very low current when off, input range which covers typical 3.0-3.3 V antenna supplies and its enable pin works with 1.8 V logic. Moreover nordic offers the nPM1300 PMIC, which contains two integrated configurable load switches (in case there is a use of power Management IC in your design).

    I hope it helps.

    Best Regards,
    Syed Maysum

Reply
  • +1

    Hi,

    Thanks for reaching out. The load switch recommendation is primarily intended to prevent continuous battery drain by cutting power to the active antenna when the GNSS receiver is idle, using a load switch controlled by the COEX0 signal (which is configured to go high during GNSS receive). Whereas the nRF9160 DK is a development and testing platform rather than an ultra low power end product.

    Regarding your second question, you can use any standard load switch like TI TPS22917 which has very low current when off, input range which covers typical 3.0-3.3 V antenna supplies and its enable pin works with 1.8 V logic. Moreover nordic offers the nPM1300 PMIC, which contains two integrated configurable load switches (in case there is a use of power Management IC in your design).

    I hope it helps.

    Best Regards,
    Syed Maysum

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