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Antenna Design Guide

Antenna Design Guide

An antenna is a critical component in a wireless system that transmits and receives electromagnetic radiation in free space. The wireless range that an end-customer gets out of an RF product with a current-limited power source such as a coin-cell battery depends greatly on the antenna design, the enclosure, and a good PCB layout.



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It is not uncommon to have a wide variation in RF ranges using the same silicon and the same power but different layout and antenna-design practice. This application note describes the best practices, layout guidelines, and an antenna-tuning procedure to get the widest range with a given amount of power. This is an important consideration for BLE system which has to operate from a tiny power source. Below Figure shows the critical components of a wireless system both at the Transmitter (TX) and Receiver (RX).

A well-designed antenna increases the operating distance of the wireless product. The more power it can transmit from the radio, the larger the distance it can cover for a given packet error rate (PER) and receiver sensitivity. Similarly, a well-tuned radio in the receiver side can work with minimal radiation incident at the antenna.

 


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