52832 ceramic chip antenna recommendations and sample layout?

[Shay Ohayon]

I'm working on designing a very small footprint PCB with the 52832. Not much ground plane (PCB area is 25x30 mm). What would be the general recommendation for a small chip antenna? I was thinking about AMCA31-2R450G-S1F-T and placing it according to the recommended white paper. Is there a PCB reference layout for a ceramic chip antenna?

[Øyvind Karlsen]

Hi,

You can find reference layout for the nRF52 series here. This contains the chip with essential components. The reference design has a 50 Ohm trace which the antenna is supposed to connect to, the antenna itself is not included in the reference design as there are many different considerations based on which model you chose. Always refer to the antenna whitepaper for proper placement. To match the antenna to 50 Ohm, you must also place a pi network between the antenna and the 50 Ohm port.

In general any chip antenna can be used, find one that works within the constraints that you have, eg. do not chose an antenna that requires a large ground plane if you have a small ground plane.

Please refer to the general PCB design guidelines for nRF52 for more information on this topic.

Best regards,

Øyvind