Nrf52 micro-coax without trace antenna

[Matt Peleshok]

Hello Nordic! Im making a custom Nrf5232 QFAA, and for the antenna,  I want to use only a grounded micro-coax connector and not a trace antenna, is this even possible? I've tried to follow previous Q&A's and have made the VSS and the ANT a short distance from the chip and the same length. I plan to use a small external antenna, with a short range of about a metre. I've attached a screenshot of the board, thanks

[Andreas]

Hi,

 

This is possible, but unless you actually connect an antenna it is hard to say what kind of wireless range you might get.

 

Your layout also is not great, so this will not help either. I recommend that you replicate our reference layout (Eagle libraries here) much more closely.  Pay attention to the grounding of C3 (the 0.8pF cap on the ANT pin) through the VSS_PA pin into the center pad, and make sure you have large ground planes as possible that are connected together by plenty of vias and ideally not split up by a lot of traces. There should also be solid ground underneath the RF path, signal/power traces have to go somewhere else.

Also feel free to submit your design in a private ticket for a review, if you do not want to share it with anybody but Nordic support engineers.

 

Best regards,
Andreas

[Matt Peleshok]

Thank you very much for the insightful advice Andreas! I will update my board accordingly.