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Design a Wireless Antenna at PCB

03/14/2018 5:25 AM

Good day~

I am design a PCB for a wireless Thermometer by using the RFM69CW Radio Module and the ATMega328p as an MCU. And I don't know how to deal with the antenna when I placed the MCU. My situation is as following:

While prototyping the setup on a breadboard i simply soldered a 1/4 wavelength (865 MHz) monopole wire antenna to the antenna pad of the RFM69CW modules and everything worked fine. However now I read a lot about RF Design and I am completely unsure what I should or shouldn't do.

I originally intended to simply route a standard trace from the ANT pad of the module to a plated trough hole and then solder my wire antenna to the hole. However, I read in several places, that i have to match the impedance of the trace to 50 Ohm and that i also have to put a ground plane next to or under(?) the trace.What is the best way to add a simple wire antenna to my PCB design? I already saw designs like the Aaduino or the Moteino from LowPowerLabs that just connected a plated trough hole some millimeters away from the ANT pad of the RFM69CW and put a ground plane on the other side of the PCB. Is it that simple or are there certain calculations behind these designs?

Please see the above picture: it's my design, the trough hole on the top left is my current attempt for mounting the wire antenna.

I will appreciated it if you could give me some suggestions.

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#1

Re: Design a Wireless Antenna at PCB

03/14/2018 9:30 AM

RF design is a very complicated field. Just reading a few books will not be enough for most people. The mathematics of antenna design The good thing for your application is a poor antenna design will likely not damage any of your circuitry. Proof of this happened when your low power transmitter was operating without an antenna. Every bit of RF power coming out of the amplifier was reflected back into the circuitry. This is a worst case scenario that happens often with a prototype did not blow up your transmitter. So you can prototype away with little risk.

My recommendation for your application is a microstrip type of antenna. If you wish to dabble in the latest technology you can attempt a Near Field antenna approach but as the article indicates this is not really an antenna but more of a planned interference that doesn't go very far. The "antenna" for this approach is actually an inductor with the magnetic field return path being free space.

Good Luck

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#2

Re: Design a Wireless Antenna at PCB

03/14/2018 4:06 PM

In addition to RedFred's links, you could google on "ANT pad of the RFM69CW" and find many useful references.

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#3

Re: Design a Wireless Antenna at PCB

03/14/2018 10:55 PM

Everything is possible if you can make it.

In here I heard some one says " Let''s get over with the steaks, we'll just eat coconuts"

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#4

Re: Design a Wireless Antenna at PCB

03/15/2018 2:59 AM

You can download a free calculator to help you design a 50 OHM trace to your plated through hole:

http://www.saturnpcb.com/pcb_toolkit.htm

I use this all the time and find it very good ...... not perfect, but very good.

You do need to know the geometry (pad stack, copper thicknesses, core material, prepreg thickness, material characteristics, etc) but this information is readily available from your PCB manufacturer/ your PCB layout tool/on line ......

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#5

Re: Design a Wireless Antenna at PCB

03/27/2018 4:14 AM

Thank you for sharing this helpful idea..

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