issue antenna

[omar]

Hi everybody,

I have an issue with my application, I want to use the ble with the same antenna that it use in the development board PCA10036, Could you please tell me if the matching and the circuit for antenna is correct ?

Thank you for your help,

[MartinBL]

1. You should always avoid long traces in high frequency antenna designs. Hence you should move the series inductor and "base" of the antenna closer to C17.
2. You cannot have too many via holes connecting the upper and lower ground layers around the matching network. You should place a few vias along the antenna and close to C17.
3. As for component values, you should start with what we suggest in our reference designs, then measure the performance, and then use that as a guideline to to find the optimal values from there on.

We always recommend following our reference schematic and layouts found here.

Here is another good PCB layout guideline.

Here you can also find the PCA10040 hardware files. Take a look and try to copy the matching network as well as the antenna.

EDIT: Continued:

Your changes look much better. Here are some more suggestions though:

In general you can't get too much grounding so try to clean up the traces a bit and pour some ground into the large empty spaces. Also try to use lots of vias on your entire PCB, not just around the antenna, to tie the top and bottom GND together. You should also have a large solid ground plane below the matching network.

[MartinBL]

Happy to help!