11.1 ATWINC15x0-MR210PB Placement and Routing
Guidelines
The module must be placed on the main board – the printed
antenna area must overlap with the carrier board. The portion of the module containing
the antenna must not go outside the edge of the main board. The antenna is designed to
work properly when it is sitting directly on top of a 1.5 mm thick printed circuit
board. The following figure shows the best, poor and worst case module placements in the
host board.
If the module is placed at the edge of the host board, a minimum 22 mm by
5 mm area directly under the antenna must be clear of all metal on all layers of the
board. “In-land” placement is acceptable; however, the depth of the keep-out area
must groove to: module edge to host board edge plus 5 mm.
Note: Do not place the
module in the middle of the host board or far away from the host board
edge.
Follow the module placement, keepout
and host PCB cutout recommendation as shown in the following figure.
Avoid routing any traces in the
highlighted region on the top layer of the host board, which is directly below the
module area.
Follow the electrical keep-out
layer recommendation as shown in the following figure. There must not be any
copper in any of the layers of the host board in this region. Avoid placing any
components (like mechanical spacers, bumpon, etc.) in the recommended electrical
keep-out area.
Place the GND polygon pour below
the module with the recommended boundary in the top layer of the host board as
shown in the following figure. There must not be any breaks in this GND
plane.
Place sufficient GND vias in the
highlighted area below the module for better RF performance.
It is recommended to have a 3x3
grid of GND vias solidly connecting the exposed GND paddle of the module to the
inner layer ground plane. This acts as a good ground and thermal conduction for
the ATWINC15x0-MR210PB module. The GND vias must have a minimum via hole size of
0.3 mm.
Follow the mechanical boundary of
the host PCB as shown in the the following figure.
Keep large metal objects away from the
antenna to avoid electromagnetic field blocking.
Do not enclose the antenna within a
metal shield.
Keep any components that may radiate
noise or signals within the 2.4 GHz – 2.5 GHz frequency band away from the antenna and
if possible, shield those components. Any noise radiated from the host board in this
frequency band will degrade the sensitivity of the module.
Make sure the width of the traces routed
to GND, VDDIO and VBAT rails are sufficiently larger for handling the peak TX current
consumption.
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