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NINA-B1 series - System Integration Manual 

UBX-15026175 - R09

 

 

Design-in 

 

 

Page 32 of 49

 

Consider that SMT  connectors  are  typically rated for a limited number of insertion cycles. In addition, the RF 
coaxial cable may be relatively fragile compared to other types of cables. To increase application ruggedness, 
connect U.FL connector to a more robust connector such as SMA fixed on panel. 

 

A de-facto standard for SMA connectors implies the usage of reverse polarity connectors (RP-SMA) on  
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth end products to increase the difficulty for the end user to replace the antenna with 
higher gain versions and exceed regulatory limits. 

The following recommendations apply for proper layout of the connector: 

 

Strictly follow the connector manufacturer’s recommended layout:  

o

 

SMA Pin-Through-Hole connectors require GND keep-out (that is, clearance, a void area) on all the 
layers around the central pin up to annular pads of the four GND posts. 

o

 

UFL surface mounted connectors require no conductive traces (that is, clearance, a void area) in the 
area below the connector between the GND land pads. 

 

If the connector’s RF pad size is  wider than the micro strip, remove the GND layer beneath the RF 
connector to minimize the stray capacitance thus keeping the RF line 50 

. For example, the active pad 

of the UF.L connector must have a GND keep-out (that is, clearance, a void area) at least on the first 
inner layer to reduce parasitic capacitance to ground. 

3.2.2.2

 

Integrated antenna design 

If integrated antennas are used, the transmission line is terminated by the integrated antennas themselves. The 
following guidelines should be followed: 

 

The antenna design process should begin at the start of the whole product design process. Self-made 
PCBs and antenna assembly are useful in estimating overall efficiency and radiation path of the intended 
design. 

 

Use antennas designed by an antenna manufacturer providing the best possible return loss (or VSWR). 

 

Provide a ground plane large enough according to the related integrated antenna requirements. The 
ground plane of the application PCB may be reduced down to a minimum size that must be similar to 
one quarter of wavelength of the minimum frequency that has to be radiated, however overall antenna 
efficiency may benefit from larger ground planes.  
Proper placement of the antenna and its surroundings is also critical for antenna performance. Avoid 
placing the antenna close to conductive or RF-absorbing parts such as metal objects, ferrite sheets and 
so on as they may absorb part of the radiated power or shift the resonant frequency of the antenna or 
affect the antenna radiation pattern. 

 

It is highly recommended to strictly follow the detailed and specific guidelines provided by the antenna 
manufacturer regarding correct installation and deployment  of the antenna system, including PCB 
layout and matching circuitry. 

 

Further to the custom PCB and product restrictions, antennas may require tuning/matching to comply 
with all the applicable required certification schemes. It is recommended to consult the  antenna 
manufacturer for the design-in guidelines and plan the validation activities on the final prototypes like 
tuning/matching and performance measures (see Table 8). 

 

RF section may be affected by noise sources like hi-speed digital buses. Avoid placing the antenna close 
to buses such as DDR or consider taking specific countermeasures like metal shields or ferrite sheets to 
reduce the interference. 

 

Take care of interaction between co-located RF systems like LTE sidebands on 2.4 GHz band. 

Transmitted power may interact or disturb the performance of NINA-B1 modules. 

3.2.3

 

On-board antenna design (NINA-B112 only) 

Keep a minimum clearance of 5 mm between the antenna and the casing. Keep a minimum of 10 mm free 
space from the metal around the antenna including the area below the antenna. If a metal enclosure is required, 
NINA-B111 with antenna pin has to be used.  

Содержание NINA-B111

Страница 1: ...th low energy modules With embedded Bluetooth low energy stack and u blox connectivity software these modules are tailored for OEMs who wish to have the shortest time to market The OEMs can also embed...

Страница 2: ...B111 NINA B111 00B 00 1 0 0 N A Mass Production NINA B111 01B 00 2 0 0 N A Mass Production NINA B111 02B 00 3 0 1 N A Initial Production NINA B112 NINA B112 00B 00 1 0 0 N A Mass Production NINA B112...

Страница 3: ...4 1 Module reset 11 1 4 2 Internal temperature sensor 11 1 5 Debug Serial Wire Debug SWD 11 1 6 Serial interfaces 12 1 6 1 Universal Asynchronous Serial Interface UART 12 1 6 2 Serial Peripheral Inter...

Страница 4: ...nes 35 3 6 1 General considerations for schematic design and PCB floor planning 35 3 6 2 Module placement 35 3 6 3 Layout and manufacturing 35 3 7 Module footprint and paste mask 36 3 8 Thermal guidel...

Страница 5: ...B flash and 64 kB RAM it offers the best in class capacity for customer applications running on top of the Bluetooth low energy stack using SDK from Nordic Semiconductor or Arm Mbed Additionally NFC a...

Страница 6: ...er Arm Mbed Nordic SDK or Wirepas development environment inside the NINA B1 module The different software options are described in more detail in section 2 1 2 Pin configuration and function 1 2 1 Pi...

Страница 7: ...s pin assignment top view The grey pins in the center of the modules are GND pins The outline of NINA B111 ends at the dotted line as shown in Figure 2 where the antenna area of NINA B112 begins All d...

Страница 8: ...an NFC field to the NFC pins when they are configured as GPIOs Doing so may cause permanent damage to the module When driving different logic levels on these pins in GPIO mode a small current leakage...

Страница 9: ...ITCH_1 and SWITCH_2 during a reset and holding it low for 10s will make the module restore all factory settings GPIO_16 16 P0 28 I O General purpose I O Pin is analog capable UART_DTR Can be used to i...

Страница 10: ...o signal groups while in Non powered mode to avoid damaging the module 1 3 Supply interfaces 1 3 1 Main supply input The NINA B1 series uses an integrated DC DC converter to transform the supply volta...

Страница 11: ...ween active and idle duty cycle of the specific application Although some DC DC can achieve high efficiency at extremely light loads a typical DC DC efficiency quickly degrades as idle current drops b...

Страница 12: ...nnect and or toggle connectable status Enable disable the rest of the UART interface Enter wake up from the sleep mode See the NINA B1 series Data Sheet 2 for characteristic information about the UART...

Страница 13: ...t Event trigger Interrupt event trigger to the software application Wake up event Any ADC input 8 10 12 bit analog to digital converter Any analog Analog comparator input Compare two voltages capable...

Страница 14: ...gh a 50 transmission line to allow reception of radio frequency RF signals in the 2 4 GHz frequency band Choose an antenna with optimal radiating characteristics for the best electrical performance an...

Страница 15: ...M installer must certify his design with respective regulatory agencies 1 8 2 Integrated antenna NINA B112 The NINA B112 is equipped with an integrated antenna on the module This will simplify the int...

Страница 16: ...connectivity software The u blox connectivity software enables the use of the Bluetooth Low Energy functions controlled by AT commands over the UART interface Examples of supported features are u blo...

Страница 17: ...l it automatically e Read the information in the SDK Release Notes and check the nRF5 Software Development Kit documentation available at http infocenter nordicsemi com Nordic tools More information a...

Страница 18: ...fine BUTTONS_ACTIVE_STATE 0 define BUTTONS_LIST BUTTON_1 BUTTON_2 define BSP_BUTTON_0 BUTTON_1 define BSP_BUTTON_1 BUTTON_2 define RX_PIN_NUMBER 5 define TX_PIN_NUMBER 6 define CTS_PIN_NUMBER 7 define...

Страница 19: ...ble getting started Mbed CLI is the name of the Arm Mbed command line tool which enables the full Mbed workflow such as repositories version control maintaining dependencies updating from remotely ho...

Страница 20: ...inNames h file should declare and define a couple of enumerations to configure the custom pin mapping Figure 6 and Figure 7 show the contents of the PinNames h file in the case of EVK NINA B1 ifndef M...

Страница 21: ...clude cmsis h ifdef __cplusplus extern C endif typedef enum PIN_INPUT PIN_OUTPUT PinDirection define PORT_SHIFT 3 typedef enum nRF52 pin names p0 0 p1 1 p2 2 p3 3 p4 4 p5 5 p6 6 p7 7 p8 8 p9 9 p10 10...

Страница 22: ...NINA B1 board LED1 NINA_B1_GPIO_1 Red LED2 NINA_B1_GPIO_7 Green SW1 LED3 NINA_B1_GPIO_8 Blue LED4 NC SW1 NINA_B1_GPIO_7 SW2 NINA_B1_GPIO_18 D0 NINA_B1_GPIO_23 D1 NINA_B1_GPIO_22 D2 NINA_B1_GPIO_21 D3...

Страница 23: ...hing of u blox connectivity software is normally done over UART If the flash is erased or any other software is flashed on the NINA B1 module then the SoftDevice and the u blox bootloader must be flas...

Страница 24: ...contains the bootloader and SoftDevice 3 Set the correct COM port and the desired speed and click Update button 4 The module will then reboot into the bootloader and the flashing will start A command...

Страница 25: ...contains the application Keep in mind that the bootloader will time out and resume the application after 10 seconds Flashing must have started before the time out and resuming of the application 2 3 2...

Страница 26: ...x hex When developing and flashing applications based on the Nordic SDK it is recommended to do an Erase all to remove the u blox connectivity software and its stored parameters before flashing down t...

Страница 27: ...ng the Bluetooth device address When the new u blox connectivity software is flashed to the module it is important to restore the Bluetooth device address as well Step 1 To enable writing of the Bluet...

Страница 28: ...and output pins Accurate design is required to guarantee that the voltage level is well defined during module boot 6 Other pins Accurate design is required to guarantee proper functionality 3 2 Anten...

Страница 29: ...minimized to reduce dielectric losses o If traces longer than few centimeters are needed it is recommended to use a coaxial connector and cable to reduce losses o Stack up should allow for thick 50 t...

Страница 30: ...o Internal integrated antennas imply physical restriction to the PCB design Integrated antenna excites RF currents on its counterpoise typically the PCB ground plane of the device that becomes part o...

Страница 31: ...Select antennas that provide appropriate gain figure that is combined antenna directivity and efficiency figure so that the electromagnetic field radiation intensity does not exceed the regulatory lim...

Страница 32: ...igned by an antenna manufacturer providing the best possible return loss or VSWR Provide a ground plane large enough according to the related integrated antenna requirements The ground plane of the ap...

Страница 33: ...C connection must be routed through a PCB area separated from sensitive analog signals and sensitive functional units It is a good practice to interpose at least one layer of PCB ground between VCC tr...

Страница 34: ...2 H will give tuning capacitors in the range of 130 pF on each pin For good performance match the total capacitance on NFC1 and NFC2 The NINA B1 modules have been tested with a 3x3 cm PCB trace antenn...

Страница 35: ...ponents or consider an optional metal shield to reduce interferences that could be picked up by the antenna thus reducing the module s sensitivity An optimized module placement allows better RF perfor...

Страница 36: ...re summarized in Table 10 The ESD immunity test is performed at the enclosure port defined by ETSI EN 301 489 1 as the physical boundary through which the electromagnetic field radiates If the device...

Страница 37: ...ion Manual UBX 15026175 R09 Design in Page 37 of 49 Compliance with standard protection level specified in EN61000 4 2 can be achieved by including ESD protections in parallel to the line close to are...

Страница 38: ...ocal GND and PCB GND Before mounting an antenna patch connect ground of the device When handling the RF pin do not come into contact with any charged capacitors and be careful when contacting material...

Страница 39: ...cycles 1 Table 11 Recommended reflow profile Figure 14 Reflow profile Lower value of TP and slower ramp down rate 2 3 C sec is preferred After reflow soldering optical inspection of the modules is re...

Страница 40: ...r boards populated with the modules Miniature Wave Selective Solder process is preferred over traditional wave soldering process Hand soldering is not recommended Rework is not recommended Conformal c...

Страница 41: ...NINA B1 series System Integration Manual UBX 15026175 R09 Qualifications and approvals Page 41 of 49 5 Qualifications and approvals For regulatory information see the NINA B1 series Datasheet 2...

Страница 42: ...n all supported bands such as receiver sensitivity transmitter power levels and so on Figure 15 Automatic test equipment for module test 6 2 OEM manufacturer production test As the testing is already...

Страница 43: ...ormed by just scanning for a known Bluetooth low energy device and checking the signal level Received Signal Strength Indicator RSSI These kinds of test may be useful as a go no go test but not for RF...

Страница 44: ...2 C Inter Integrated Circuit JSON JavaScript Object Notation LDO Low Drop Out LED Light Emitting Diode MAC Media Access Control MSL Moisture Sensitivity Level NSMD Non Solder Mask Defined PCB Printed...

Страница 45: ...d parts for antenna matching PCB layout must be identical to the one provided by u blox please implement one of the reference designs included in this section or contact u blox The designer must use t...

Страница 46: ...Should have a solid GND inner layer under and around the RF components vias and small openings are allowed 4 RF trace Antenna coplanar microstrip matched to 50 5 GND trace Green Minimum required top...

Страница 47: ...race required around the RF trace and pins GND stitching vias should be used around the RF trace to ensure a proper GND connection No other components are allowed within this area The solid GND layer...

Страница 48: ...fications register on our website http www u blox com Revision history Revision Date Name Comments R01 22 Feb 2016 fbro ajoh kgom Initial release R02 19 May 2016 fbro Updated information about reflash...

Страница 49: ...m Regional Office China Beijing Phone 86 10 68 133 545 E mail info_cn u blox com Support support_cn u blox com Regional Office China Chongqing Phone 86 23 6815 1588 E mail info_cn u blox com Support s...

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