10.1 Placement and Routing Guidelines

It is critical to follow the recommendations listed below to achieve the best RF performance:

  • The board must have a solid ground plane. The center ground pad of the device must be solidly connected to the ground plane by using a 3x3 grid of vias.
  • To avoid electromagnetic field blocking, keep any large metal objects as far away from the antenna as possible.
  • Do not enclose the antenna within a metal shield.
  • Keep noise-radiating components or signals, within the 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz frequency band, away from the antenna and shield those components if possible. Any noise radiated from the host board in this frequency band degrades the sensitivity of the chip.