Bluetooth Antenna

Application Note

GSM/GPRS Module Series

Rev. Bluetooth_Antenna_Application_Note_V1.1

Date: 2015-04-11

www.quectel.com
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Bluetooth Antenna Application Note

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GENERAL NOTES

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COPYRIGHT

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Copyright © Quectel Wireless Solutions Co., Ltd. 2015. All rights reserved.

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About the Document

History

Revision Date

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1.0 2014-12-17 Cat WANG/Rain ZHOU Initial

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1.1 2015-04-11 Rain ZHOU Added applicable modules

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Contents

About the Document ................................................................................................................................... 2

Contents ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Figure Index ................................................................................................................................................. 4

1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5

2 Ceramic (Chip) Antenna ...................................................................................................................... 6

3 Planar Inverted-F Antenna .................................................................................................................. 8

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4 Meander Line Antenna ...................................................................................................................... 10

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5 Rod Antenna for 2.4G ........................................................................................................................ 12

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6 Appendix A Reference....................................................................................................................... 14

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Figure Index

FIGURE 1: RECOMMENDED PCB LAYOUT ..................................................................................................... 6

FIGURE 2: PAD DIMENSIONS ON PCB LAYOUT ............................................................................................. 7
FIGURE 3: INPAQ 5036 CHIP ANTENNA ON M66 TE-A ................................................................................... 7
FIGURE 4: PLANAR INVERTED F ANTENNA PCB DESIGN ............................................................................ 8
FIGURE 5: CORRESPONDING SIZE PARAMETERS ....................................................................................... 8
FIGURE 6: APPLICATION OF PLANAR INVERTED-F ANTENNA ON PCB ...................................................... 9
FIGURE 7: DESIGN PARAMETERS OF TYPICAL MEANDER LINE ANTENNA ............................................ 10
FIGURE 8: APPLICATION OF MEANDER LINE ANTENNA ON PCB ............................................................... 11

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FIGURE 9: 2.4G ROD ANTENNA (SMA CONNECTOR) .................................................................................. 12
FIGURE 10: 2.4G COPPER PIPE ANTENNA (IPX SOCKET) .......................................................................... 12

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1 Introduction
Generally, there are several types of bluetooth antennas in present market, such as dipole antenna,
planar inverted-F antenna, meander line antenna, ceramic antenna, liquid crystal polymer (LCP) antenna
and rod antenna (only for 2.4G) etc. The features of almost omni-directional radiation pattern, simple
structure and low cost make them widely used in embedded Bluetooth devices.

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This document mainly introduces the design of four kinds of Bluetooth antennas which are frequently

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used.

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This document is applicable to Quectel M66 module.

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2 Ceramic (Chip) Antenna

Ceramic antenna generally has small size, however, the design of ceramic antenna is relatively complex,
especially for encapsulation and PCB design. It has certain requirements on ground plane and the
clearance around. There are various dimensions, sizes and design requirements for different chip
antennas, even you design the antenna according to the reference design completely, you still need to

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tune carefully to achieve the best performance. The following part is a practical application of INPAQ 5036
chip antenna which is used on M66 TE-A.

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Figure 1: Recommended PCB Layout

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Figure 2: Pad Dimensions on PCB Layout

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NOTE

Please refer to Document [1] for more information about INPAQ 5036 SPEC. Same as other vendors’
ceramic antenna, you also need to follow reference design strictly and tune the antenna matching after
PCBA design.

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3 Planar Inverted-F Antenna

Planar inverted-F antenna just needs metal conductor, suitable feed line and connection to ground, so its
cost is low and it can be soldered on PCB directly to form an integrated structure.

Planar inverted-F antenna could be linear or flaky. Figure 4 and 5 provide the PCB design encapsulation

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parameters of the planar inverted-F antenna.

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Figure 4: Planar Inverted F Antenna PCB Design

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Figure 5: Corresponding Size Parameters

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In Figure 4, the Bluetooth antenna feed point is connected with BT_ANT pin, outer L-short side is
connected to ground plane, and the antenna access point is located between ground plane and antenna
open point. On-board F antenna is normally placed at the first layer of PCB, ground plane needs to be
placed at the first layer and near the antenna, but you must keep clearance around the antenna. The
following figure demonstrates the application of planar inverted-F antenna when it is designed as
on-board antenna on PCB design according to above parameters.

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Figure 6: Application of Planar Inverted-F Antenna on PCB

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NOTE

Above planar inverted-F antenna is recommend by the T1 official document, you still need to tune the

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antenna matching, for details, please refer to Document [2].

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4 Meander Line Antenna

Generally, meander line antenna is on-board antenna. Meanwhile, it is placed at the first layer of PCB,
and ground plane should be placed at the first layer and near the antenna, but you must keep clearance
around the antenna. The following figure shows the size of one meander line antenna.

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Figure 7: Design Parameters of Typical Meander Line Antenna

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Figure 8: Application of Meander Line Antenna on PCB

NOTE

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Above meander line antenna is recommend by T1 official document, you still need to tune the antenna

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matching, for details, please refer to Document [3].

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5 Rod Antenna for 2.4G

The figure below shows the rod Bluetooth antenna for 2.4G. Even though its dimension is bigger than
others, it has the best performance and farthest transmit distance. Figure 10 is IPX socket copper pipe
antenna. It is smaller than rod antenna but the performance is weaker. These two kinds of antennas are
simple, you just need to control the routing impedance as 50ohm from the Bluetooth RF output to RF

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connector. Meanwhile, keep clearance around the antenna and pay attention that no metal shelter around
the antenna is placed.

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Figure 9: 2.4G Rod Antenna (SMA Connector)

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Figure 10: 2.4G Copper Pipe Antenna (IPX Socket)

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Antenna is sensitive to metal, the ground plane at the PCB or the metal shielding will impact antenna
radiation performance seriously. In order to keep good performance of Bluetooth antenna and improve
transmission quality, it is recommended to take the Bluetooth antenna design and application
environment of products into consideration at the beginning of device design.

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6 Appendix A Reference

Table 1: Related Documents

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[1] ACA-5036-A2-CC-S Application Note

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[2] DN007 2.4GHz Inverted F Antenna (swru120b.pdf)

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[3] AN043 Small Size 2.4GHz PCB Antenna (swra117.pdf)

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