Meandered trace antenna with nRF52832-QFAA

RE: Meandered trace antenna with nRF52832-QFAA

bjorn-spockeli — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 08:52:24 GMT

Yes, sorry for the typo, except for the tuning components.

RE: Meandered trace antenna with nRF52832-QFAA

MANGO — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 16:05:42 GMT

You mean mount every components except (expect typo?) the tuning RLC parts before sending it?

RE: Meandered trace antenna with nRF52832-QFAA

bjorn-spockeli — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 15:19:35 GMT

Our reference designs use a 1.6mm thick PCB. The board should be fully populated, expect for the tuning components. Our RF application engineers will provide you with instructions once you submit your schematics for review through Mypage.

RE: Meandered trace antenna with nRF52832-QFAA

MANGO — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 15:07:49 GMT

Then what thickness do you recommend when designing 2-layered FR4 PCB?

Back to the original question, when sending my custom PCB to you,

should I send a bare board(a board that has nothing soldered)?

Or should I assemble (mount at least nRF52832-QFAA) the parts before sending?

RE: Meandered trace antenna with nRF52832-QFAA

bjorn-spockeli — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 14:53:58 GMT

I would recommend going for a 2-layer design if possible. The factors that will affect the impedance of the antenna are: PCB thickness, the size of the ground layers, the distance between the internal layers, how well the ground layers are connected with vias and proximity to metal/housing of the PCB. I recommend that you read our Antenna Tuning white paper, found here.

RE: Meandered trace antenna with nRF52832-QFAA

MANGO — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 14:21:48 GMT

Thanks, Bjørn.

This will depend on the PCB thickness, the size of the ground layers, vias, .... etc.

I'm a novice at PCB. As mentioned before, I'm thinking of a 4 layered, FR4, 1.6mm thick, and green PSR ink PCB.

I will place 4x4 vias at the ground pad of nRF52832-QFAA.

About the "etc", can you mention other parameters?

RE: Meandered trace antenna with nRF52832-QFAA

bjorn-spockeli — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 09:38:49 GMT

Hi Mango,

Q0: No, the nRF52832 has an On-chip balun so you do not need that many external components. As long as you follow the nRF52832 reference design( i.e. the orange box) you will be fine.

Q1: Yes, you will need to match the impedance of the antenna to 50 Ohms. This will depend on the PCB thickness, the size of the ground layers, vias, .... etc. Thus, there is no standard values that will work for every PCB, you usually have to find the correct value by trial and error. However, you can send the PCB to us and we will perform the tuning for you - free of charge. You will have to register for a Mypage account and then you can send the gerbers and schematics for review before you send the PCB.

Best regards

Bjørn