Does the nRF52810 have an integrated PCB antenna?

[mwilliams95]

Apologies for the newbie question. Does this BLE Module need a separate antenna to be purchased? Or are you supposed to design your own with PCB traces? Some BLE modules have integrated PCB trace antennas for the bluetooth signal this is why I'm asking.

If you are supposed to design your own, is there a reference layout for the antenna?

Thank you.

[Andreas]

Hi,

 

No nRF5 device has a built-in antenna, these are integrated circuits containing the radio, CPU cores and peripheral circuitry. The radio generates a radio signal on the ANT pin, if you want to convert this to a radiated signal (i.e. propagating on air) you need to load the ANT pin or RF path with an antenna at the end. This can either be off-the-shelf or you can integrate it in your PCB. For the latter option you might find this whitepaper handy, also you can find design descriptions of other variants available online. Note that whichever you choose you should make sure to tune it. These are also generally non-directive. For off-the-shelf antennas there are all sorts of sizes, shapes, external/internal, directive/non-directive and price points to be found, you might want to read up to understand what kind of antenna your product needs for best possible user experience in a typical end use scenario.

 

Best regards,

Andreas

[awneil]

As Andreas says, the nRF52810 is just a chip - it is not a module!

A module consists of the chip plus a few other supporting components mounted on a circuit board - some modules do include a PCB antenna; some don't.

The advantage of using a module is that it saves you having to do the specialist RF design work, and also saves you a lot of work (and cost) in getting approvals.

As a newbie, you should certainly be looking to  use a module!

Nordic themselves don't make modules, but they do have a list of 3rd-party modules using their chips:

https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-tools/3rd-Party/3rd-party-modules

[awneil]

awneil said:

As a newbie, you should certainly be looking to  use a module!

But, before you get there, start with a Nordic Dev Kit (or kits) to gain experience with the chip, the tools, and BLE in general.

Note that this does assume that you are already a competent embedded microcontroller developer ...