RE: nRF52833 Development Kit Hardware Questions

cheezballs — Thu, 14 May 2020 09:28:35 GMT

[quote userid="73427" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/61222/nrf52833-development-kit-hardware-questions/249495"]Midtlayer 2 is the power plane of the board. VDD_SAM refers to the power domain for the Segger debugger chip used in the DK (ATSAM3U2CA).[/quote]

This makes sense, thank you!

[quote userid="73427" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/61222/nrf52833-development-kit-hardware-questions/249495"]Our reference designs show what the distribution of the via holes may look like, or think about having one ground via every 3-5 mm.[/quote]

Thanks for clarifying that! I am using one of the nRF52833 reference designs at the moment.

[quote userid="73427" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/61222/nrf52833-development-kit-hardware-questions/249495"]Also you can take a look at this blogpost with general PCB design guidelines for the nRF52 series[/quote]

This looks like a really useful resource.

Many thanks

RE: nRF52833 Development Kit Hardware Questions

Marjeris Romero — Tue, 12 May 2020 13:24:10 GMT

Hi,

Midtlayer 2 is the power plane of the board. VDD_SAM refers to the power domain for the Segger debugger chip used in the DK (ATSAM3U2CA).

And yes, it's recommended to use enough ground vias to connect the ground planes. This is specially important for RF designs, where having a big solid ground plane is very important. Our reference designs show what the distribution of the via holes may look like, or think about having one ground via every 3-5 mm.

If you are planing to do your own custom PCB using one of our nRF chips I recommend taking a look at the reference schematics and layout corresponding to the chip you are using. You can find these on the Nordic Infocenter, for example for the nRF52833 take a look at: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fps_nrf52833%2Fref_circuitry.html

Pay close attention to the section "PCB guidelines" above.

Also you can take a look at this blogpost with general PCB design guidelines for the nRF52 series: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/short-range-guides/b/hardware-and-layout/posts/general-pcb-design-guidelines-for-nrf52

Best regards,

Marjeris