Laird BL600 Series, Hardware Integration Manual

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BL600-Sx
Single Mode BLE Module
Americas: +1-800-492-2320 Option 2
Europe: +44-1628-858-940
Hong Kong: +852-2923-0610
www.lairdtech.com/bluetooth
30 CONN-UM-BL600_v1_0

Metal close to the BL600-SA chip monopole antenna (bottom, top, left, right, any direction) will have
degradation on the antenna performance. How much; that is entirely system dependent which means
some testing by customer required (in their host application).

Anything metal closer than 20mm will start to significantly degrade performance (S11, gain, radiation
efficiency).

It is best that the customer tests the Range with mock-up (or actual prototype) of the product to assess
effects of enclosure height (and material whether metal or plastic).
6.4 50-Ohms RF trace on Host PCB for BL600-ST
Checklist (for PCB)

RF_ANT pin (pin30) is on the BL600-ST module only. You MUST use a 50-Ohm trace from RF_ANT pin to
RSMA RF antenna connector on host PCB.
Figure 11 shows the 10 mm length 50-Ohms RF trace (implemented as GCPW) from the BL600-ST module RF
trace pads (GND, RF_ANT, GND) on BL600 development board.
Figure 11: 50-Ohm trace design on BL600 development board (or host PCB) for use with BL600-ST module.
50-Ohms RF trace design and test verification for ensuring compliance

Follow the 50-Ohms trace design used on the BL600 development board (PCB stack-up in Figure10). If
this PCB-stack-up is not practical on customer design then design 50-Ohms for differing PCB stack-up.

Use the same PCB material (FR4)

The 50-Ohms trace should be controlled impedance trace e.g.
±
10%.

The 50-Ohms RF trace length should be 10mm (is recommended) as on the BL600 development board
to reduce the trace length.
BL600-ST module
Pin30 RF_ANT trace
pad.