NB-IoT Module Series
BC66 Hardware Design
BC66_Hardware_Design 38 / 57
Use impedance simulation tool to control the characteristic impedance of RF traces as 50
Ω.
The GND pins adjacent to RF pins should not be designed as thermal relief pads, and should be fully
connected to ground.
The distance between the RF pins and the RF connector should be as short as possible, and all the
right angle traces should be changed to curved ones.
There should be clearance area under the signal pin of the antenna connector or solder joint.
The reference ground of RF traces should be complete. Meanwhile, adding some ground vias around
RF traces and the reference ground could help to improve RF performance. The distance between
the ground vias and RF traces should be no less than two times the width of RF signal traces (2*W).
For more details, please refer to
document [2]
.
4.5. Antenna Requirements
To minimize the loss on RF trace and RF cable, please pay attention to the antenna design. The following
tables show the requirements on NB-IoT antenna.
Table 15: Antenna Cable Insertion Loss Requirements
Band
Requirements
LTE B5/B8/B12/B13/B17/B18/B19/B20/B26*/B28
Cable Insertion loss: <1dB
LTE B1/B2/B3/B4/B25/B66
Cable Insertion loss: <1.5dB
“*” means under development.
Table 16: Required Antenna Parameters
Parameters
Requirements
Frequency Range
699MHz~2200MHz
VSWR
≤2
Efficiency
> 30%
Max Input Power (W)
50
NOTE
