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NEO-M8L - Hardware integration manual
UBX-16010549 - R08
Design
Page 13 of 28
C1-Public
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An external LNA is only required if the passive antenna is placed far away from the module. In that
case the LNA has to be placed directly to the passive antenna.
2.4.2
Active antenna design
An active antenna makes use of an integrated low-noise amplifier, which requires a power supply that
will contribute to the total GNSS system power consumption budget with additional 5 to 20 mA
typically.
If the supply voltage of the NEO-M8L module matches the supply voltage of the active antenna (for
example, 3.0 V), use the filtered supply voltage available at pin VCC_RF as shown in Figure 8.
Active antenna design using VCC_RF pin to supply the active antenna
Figure 8: Active antenna design, external supply from VCC_RF
If the VCC_RF voltage does not match with the supply voltage of the active antenna, use a filtered
external supply as shown in Figure 9.
For exact pin orientation, see the corresponding product Data sheet [1], [2], or [3] in the Related
documents section.
Active antenna design powered from an external supply
Figure 9: Active antenna design, direct external supply
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The circuit shown in Figure 9 works with all u-blox M8 modules, also with modules without VCC_RF
output.
