Meander PCB Antenna Design

[hamidh]

I have meander antenna design on my board with matching network(similar to PCA10031). Since I don't have access to VNA or Spectrum Analyzer for tuning antenna, I am tuning my board by comparing RSSI value of my board with PCA10028 with the help nRF Connect. I am keeping same transmitting power and best possible position of both boards to get best RSSI value to compare. I am able to get RSSI value -21dBm on my design and RSSI value -22dBm on PCA10028.

Is this method is good to check Antenna and matching network on my board, is my design optimised?

[Locky]

Simply put no. But it depends on how good you need your RF performance to be. I doubt you'd ever really be able to optimize the design with this method as there are a variety of factors that go into good RF. Frequency Tuning, Return Loss, Bandwidth, Efficiency... If you need a proof on concept and you followed a reference layout design perfectly then your method could work to get a decent performance. But it won't optimized.

I didn't mean to sound negative, RF design is an extremely complex area.

[Ole Bauck]

Nordic also offers to tune customers antenna as most don't have the expensive equipment (like spectrum analyzer). To do so open a case on mypage.