How is an inverted F PCB antenna designed?
3.1 Antenna Placement Silicon Labs designed and optimized the Inverted-F reference designs for a 1″-wide PCB board. The ground plane forms an important part of the antenna. The following figure shows the surface currents around the antenna. As you can see, there is significant current running along the ground plane edge.
Which is the smallest inverted F antenna solution?
This antenna is the smallest inverted-F antenna solution for applications requiring wireless communication at 2.4 GHz. Adjusting the geometry of the inverted-F antenna allows you to select the resonant frequency, the radiation pattern, and its bandwidth. Each of these parameters is very important in different applications.
Is the antenna printed on a PCB for free?
Since the antennas are printed directly on the board, they are gener- ally considered to be free. On boards with room to spare, this will be true. On boards that need to grow to account for the increased size of the printed antenna, you must include the added cost of the larger PCB when calculating cost savings.
Are there dimen sions for a PCB antenna?
Silicon Labs provides antenna dimen- sions in two different substrate thicknesses. PCB antennas are board specific, so you may need to modify the antenna dimen- sions for your board implementation. KEY POINTS
Where is the ground plane on a PCB?
The ground plane on a printed circuit board is typically a large area of metal connected to the circuit ground. This area of metal is sometimes only a small portion of the board, or in a multi-layer design it may be one entire board layer. Depending on the needs of the design, it may even occupy multiple layers.
Can a guard trace be used on a PCB?
Guard traces do not provide much benefit if your digital PCB already has a solid ground plane. RF circuits with antennas should already separate the antenna and ground plane so that they do not overlap. Another measure that can be used to decouple noise between the antenna and the ground plane is to use a via fence.