Ublox AMY-6M, Hardware Integration Manual

Page 1: ...st effective AMY 6M GPS module featuring the u blox 6 positioning engine The AMY 6M module boasts the industry s smallest form factor and is a fully tested standalone solution that requires no host integration This module combines exceptional GPS performance with highly flexible power design and serial communication options www u blox com ...

Page 2: ... UBX TN 12032 This document and the use of any information contained therein is subject to the acceptance of the u blox terms and conditions They can be downloaded from www u blox com u blox makes no warranties based on the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this document and reserves the right to make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time without notice u blox re...

Page 3: ...beginning to the end The following symbols are used to highlight important information within the manual An index finger points out key information pertaining to module integration and performance A warning symbol indicates actions that could negatively impact or damage the module Questions If you have any questions about u blox 6 Hardware Integration please Read this manual carefully Read the que...

Page 4: ...V 14 2 1 8 Separate supplies of 3 0 V 2 5 3 6 V and 1 4 V 1 4 3 6 V 14 2 1 9 External 1 8V DCDC converter 15 2 1 10 Operating modes 15 2 1 11 Active antenna supply 16 2 2 System functions 17 2 2 1 EXTINT external interrupt pin 17 2 2 2 System monitoring 17 2 2 3 Interference Monitor 17 2 3 Interfaces 17 2 3 1 UART 17 2 3 2 USB 17 2 3 3 Display Data Channel DDC 19 2 3 4 SPI 20 2 4 I O Pins 23 2 4 1...

Page 5: ...rical Overstress EOS 37 2 14 5 EOS protection measures 37 2 14 6 Electromagnetic Interference EMI 37 2 14 7 GSM applications 38 2 14 8 Recommended parts 40 3 Product handling soldering 41 3 1 Packaging shipping storage and moisture preconditioning 41 3 2 ESD handling precautions 41 3 3 Soldering 41 3 3 1 Soldering paste 41 3 3 2 Reflow soldering 42 3 3 3 Optical inspection 42 3 3 4 Repeated reflow...

Page 6: ...USB LDO U4 47 B 6 Operational amplifier U31 48 B 7 Dual open drain buffer U32 48 B 8 Antenna supervisor switch transistor T31 48 B 9 Ferrite bead filter FB1 48 B 10 Inductor L 48 B 11 Standard capacitors 48 B 12 Standard resistors 49 B 13 LNA LNA1 49 B 14 SAW Filter F2 49 C Interface Backgrounder 50 C 1 DDC Interface 50 C 1 1 Addresses roles and modes 50 C 1 2 DDC troubleshooting 51 C 2 SPI Interf...

Page 7: ...ntegration is supported which brings additional cost savings AMY 6M s miniature size means that it can be integrated into the smallest portable devices Advanced interference suppression mechanisms and innovative RF architecture ensure maximum performance even in hostile signal environments 1 2 Architecture The AMY 6M module consists of two functional parts the RF and the Baseband sections See Figu...

Page 8: ...ng matched impedance and no stubs With AMY 6M an additional external LNA is mandatory if no active antenna is used 2 1 Power management 2 1 1 Overview The power supply circuitry can be adapted to various concepts depending on the intended application Figure 2 gives an overview of the power supply features Figure 2 Power supply diagram 2 1 1 1 Main supply voltage During operation the base band supp...

Page 9: ...nternal VDD_B power domain in case VDD_IO drops below the specified minimum value VDD_IO will supply the VDD_B power domain if a sufficiently high input voltage is detected See Figure 3 below and see also section 2 1 1 6 Figure 3 Supply of Backup Domain VDD_B Limit V_BCKP and VDD_IO to 3 6 V 2 1 1 5 RF supply voltages The RF unit is supplied through the VDD_RF pin This supply voltage can optionall...

Page 10: ...he threshold of the VDD_IO supply monitor is set to its lowest value in order to ensure the system only starts when I Os are operational Once external memory is detected the threshold will be adapted according to memory type in order to detect brown out conditions in case VDD_IO would drop below the operational range of external memory The following rules do apply 1 In case of EEPROM at DDC interf...

Page 11: ...fferent system supply voltages Table 2 shows the continuous power consumption when the system has acquired all satellites and is running in steady state Table 3 shows the peak power consumption during signal acquisition These two cases allow assessing the dimensioning of peak power and continuous power capabilities of the power supply circuit The green and red highlighting illustrates the best and...

Page 12: ...e 4 lists the power supply pins and their connection requirements Pin Function Comments V_DCDC Main Core VDD_C Supply Always needs input The current consumption varies over time peak currents Keep series resistance low to prevent ripple on the power supply VDD_3V Main RF Supply Supplied by 2 5 3 6V or connected to VDD_RF depends on supply scheme VDD_IO I O Supply Voltage Always needs to be supplie...

Page 13: ...is very easy to design but is not the most efficient solution to run u blox 6 receivers see section 2 1 3 for details Figure 4 Single 2 5 3 6 V supply 2 1 6 Single 1 75 2 0 V supply The single 1 8V power supply is a very efficient configuration to run u blox 6 receivers see section 2 1 3 for details Figure 5 Single 1 75 2 0 V supply ...

Page 14: ...ection 2 1 3 for details It assures stability since the sensitive RF supply is well separated from the fluctuating base band power supply Figure 6 Separate supplies of 1 8 V and 1 4 V 2 1 8 Separate supplies of 3 0 V 2 5 3 6 V and 1 4 V 1 4 3 6 V It assures a better stability than a single 3 0V power supply as the sensitive RF supply is well separated from the fluctuating base band power supply Fi...

Page 15: ...s to navigate and optimizes use of the acquisition engine to download their ephemeris In non cold starts u blox AMY 6M focuses on searching for visible satellites whose orbits are known from the Almanac In Eco Mode the u blox AMY 6M acquisition engine limits use of its searching resources to minimize power consumption u blox AMY 6M deactivates the acquisition engine as soon as a position is fixed ...

Page 16: ...a an inductor as indicated in Figure 9 u blox recommends using an inductor from Murata LQG15HS27NJ02 Alternative parts can be used if the inductor s resonant frequency matches the GPS frequency of 1575 42MHz Figure 9 Recommended wiring for active antennas For C and L values see Component Selection Section B For optimal performance it is important to place the inductor as close to the microstrip as...

Page 17: ...DC I 2 C compatible and SPI Depending on the application any of these interfaces may be selected For debugging purposes it is recommended to have a second interface unused by the actual application available on test points New with firmware version 7 and above is the feature that each interface can define a corresponding pin which indicates if bytes are ready to be transmitted The Tx ready pin can...

Page 18: ..._COM1 GND USB is not compatible with Power Save Mode with FW6 02 and below Figure 11 USB Interface bus powered setup Name Component Function Comments U4 LDO Regulates VBUS 4 4 5 25 V down to a voltage of 3 3 V Almost no current requirement 1 mA if the GPS receiver is operated as a USB self powered device but if bus powered LDO U4 must be able to deliver the maximum current of 70 mA A low cost DC D...

Page 19: ... R21 50 pF N A 100 pF 18 k 250 pF 4 7 k Table 6 Pull up resistor values for DDC interface 2 3 3 1 Communicating to an I 2 C EEPROM with the GPS receiver as I 2 C master Serial I 2 C memory can be connected to the DDC interface as shown in Figure 12 This can be used to permanently save configuration settings It will automatically be recognized by firmware The memory address must be set to 0b1010000...

Page 20: ...t can exercise full control over the bus MASTER mode The AMY 6M always interrogates external EEPROM at the start up The interrogation process is guaranteed to complete within 250ms upon start up This is the time the external host has to give to the ROM based GPS receiver to complete the EEPROM interrogation The AMY 6M DDC interface supports serial communication with u blox wireless modules See the...

Page 21: ...ust be supplied with same voltage as external serial FLASH 2 3 4 2 Detection of SPI serial FLASH The AMY 6M only detects the serial FLASH if all the SPI pins CLK SS_N MOSI and MISO are high This is the case if only the serial FLASH is connected to the SPI interface pins Figure 15 Detection of SPI FLASH memory 2 3 4 3 SPI communication connecting to an SPI host master Figure 16 shows how to connect...

Page 22: ... solved as shown in Figure 17 by making sure the SS_N is high when the receiver starts up The SPI signals at AMY 6M are at with VDD_IO voltage levels VDD_IO must be supplied with the same voltage as the host processor TX ready signal data ready to be picked up can be configured see 2 4 1 3 2 3 4 4 Pin configuration with module as one of several slaves Figure 17 Diagram of SPI Pin Configuration Com...

Page 23: ...tive The TX ready signal can be mapped to GPIO 05 TXD1 The TX ready pin is disabled by default Most u blox wireless modules configure and enable the TX ready functionality automatically at GPIO 05 TXD1 of AMY 6M See datasheet of the wireless module For more information on configuration and remap of this pin see the AMY 6M Data Sheet 1 and see also the u blox 6 Receiver Description including Protoc...

Page 24: ... m em ories S YS T E M R U N N IN G F unc tional C onfiguration Low Level C onfiguration S T AR T O F S Y S T E M Figure 19 Configuration at start up 2 5 1 1 Low Level Configuration The Low Level Configuration provides some basic configuration information such as GPS mode or reference clock frequency This information can be supplied in different ways However not all of them are available in every ...

Page 25: ...figuration of the ports and the messages the navigation engine settings and the NMEA protocol configuration This information can be stored on the following non volatile memories On chip battery backed RAM BBR V_BCKP supplied by backup battery External serial EEPROM connected to the DDC Section 2 3 3 1 External serial FLASH memory connected to the SPI Section 2 3 4 1 Figure 21 Functional Block Conf...

Page 26: ...t is only required in stand alone applications where hot or warm starts are enabled In these cases actual time is maintained in the RTC and Ephemeris and other last known data is kept in the backup RAM In A GPS based systems the RTC is not required and coarse or fine time information is available from the network If neither backup RAM nor RTC are required V_BCKP should be connected to GND The exte...

Page 27: ... An LNA LNA1 alone would make the AMY 6M more sensitive to outband jammers so an additional GPS SAW filter F2 has to be connected between the external LNA LNA1 and the AMY 6M RF input Figure 23 Recommended passive antenna design PIO17 can be configured as ANTOFF active antenna off signal which can be used to turn off an external LNA The ANTOFF signal must be inverted for common LNAs which come wit...

Page 28: ... _ IO V D D _ IO T 3 1 U 3 1 Figure 25 Active antenna supervisor circuit Equation 1 Calculation of antenna supervisor current IANT Equation 1 shows the calculation of the antenna supervisor current IANT In case antenna supply voltage V_ANT exceeds VDD_IO open drain buffers U32 e g Fairchild NC7WZ07 and resistors R31 and R30 are required to maintain control on T31 as well as to avoid leakage curren...

Page 29: ...RF part supply see Figure 26 Then by driving this Reset input low with an open drain buffer the system is held in a reset state Don t drive this Reset input high Only drive low or with high impedance open drain output device The open drain buffer connected to the Reset input signal must be able to draw around 1mA to GND Do not use a higher value than 3k3 Ohm otherwise the V_RESET threshold will be...

Page 30: ... is mandatory if no active antenna is used Make sure the antenna is not placed close to noisy parts of the circuitry and not facing noisy parts e g micro controller display etc To optimize performance in environments with out band jamming interference sources use an additional SAW filter For more information dealing with interference issues see the GPS Antenna Application Note 3 Schematic Pins C9 ...

Page 31: ...le It is a 3V main supply design 2 5 3 6V for an active antenna running with main supply voltage Also Backup part is supplied and RTC connected Thus Warmstarts and Hotstarts are supported Communication is UART with main supply voltage levels Default messages and baudrate are chosen Figure 27 Typical schematic of a 3V design for an active antenna not shown pins have to be left open ...

Page 32: ...pt Time Mark Leave open if not used D2 Reserved I O Reserved Do not connect Must be left open D7 USB_DP I O USB data Leave open if not used D8 V_RESET I Supply Monitor Connect to VDD_3V See section 2 1 D9 VDD_3V I Main RF Supply See section 2 1 E1 Reserved I Reserved Do not connect Must be left open E2 Reserved I Reserved Do not connect Must be left open E8 PIO23 I O Reserved Always connect to GND...

Page 33: ...ce interference Especially for the RF input line For improved shielding add as many vias as possible around the micro strip coplanar waveguide around the serial communication lines underneath the GPS module etc Calculation of the micro strip for RF input The micro strip coplanar waveguide must be 50 Ohms and be routed in a section of the PCB where minimal interference from noise sources can be exp...

Page 34: ...ask The paste mask shall be 50µm smaller than the copper pads with a paste thickness of 100µm The paste mask outline needs to be considered when defining the minimal distance to the next component These are recommendations only and not specifications The exact geometry distances stencil thicknesses and solder paste volumes must be adapted to the specific production processes e g soldering etc of t...

Page 35: ... The external series resistors in the USB_DM nd USB_DP lines have changed from 27 Ohm to now 22 Ohm Change series resistors in USB_DM and USB_DP line to 22 Ohm The signal levels for RxD1 EXTINT0 and EXTINT1 are now related to VDD_IO and have the same input levels as all the other IOs There is no longer any exception for the signal input levels for RxD1 EXTINT0 or EXTINT1 External pull ups or pull ...

Page 36: ...tandards Institute CDMA Code Division Multiple Access EMC Electromagnetic compatibility EMI Electromagnetic interference EOS Electrical Overstress EPA Electrostatic Protective Area ESD Electrostatic discharge GND Ground GPS Global Positioning System GSM Global System for Mobile Communications IEC International Electrotechnical Commission PCB Printed circuit board Table 9 Explanation of abbreviatio...

Page 37: ...rotection measures as shown in Figure 30 are recommended for any designs combining wireless communication transceivers e g GSM GPRS and GPS in the same design or in close proximity Passive antennas Active Antennas without internal filter which need the module antenna supervisor circuits C R F _ I N G P S R e c e iv e r LN A G P S B a n d p a s s Filtle r D LNA with appropriate ESD rating and maxim...

Page 38: ... B B L M 1 5 H D 1 0 2 S N 1 1 0 m m Figure 31 EMI Precautions VCC can be protected using a feed thru capacitor For electromagnetic compatibility EMC of the RF_IN pin refer to section 2 14 5 2 14 7 GSM applications GSM uses power levels up to 2W 33dBm Make sure that absolute maximum input power level of GPS receiver is not exceeded See AMY 6M Data Sheet 1 2 14 7 1 Isolation between GPS and GSM ant...

Page 39: ... a good grounding concept in the design Shielding Layout optimisation Filtering Placement of the GPS antenna Adding a CDMA GSM WCDMA bandbass filter before handset antenna 2 14 7 4 Out band interference Out band interference is caused by signal frequencies that are different from the GPS carrier see Figure 34 The main sources are wireless communication systems such as GSM CDMA WCDMA WiFi BT etc 0 ...

Page 40: ...wer Input 2 14 5 25dBm Max Power Input Murata SAFEA1G57KD0F00 SAFSE1G57KA0T90 2 14 5 1 35x1 05x0 5 mm 2 14 5 2 5x2 0x1 0 mm Low loss RF filter for GPS Unbalanced to unbalanced operation Insertion Loss Bandwidth and BW over temperature Electrostatic Sensitive Device ESD MM CTS CER0032A 2 14 5 4 2x4 0x2 0 mm 8kV ESD HBM LNA Avago ALM 1106 ALM 1412 ALM 1712 ALM 2412 2 14 3 A LNA 2 14 5 C LNA FBAR Fil...

Page 41: ... risk of electrostatic charges In addition to standard ESD safety practices the following measures should be taken into account whenever handling the receiver Unless there is a galvanic coupling between the local GND i e the work table and the PCB GND then the first point of contact when handling the PCB shall always be between the local GND and PCB GND Before mounting an antenna patch connect gro...

Page 42: ...ow soldering processes are recommended for boards populated with AMY 6M modules 3 3 5 Wave soldering Base boards with combined through hole technology THT components and surface mount technology SMT devices require wave soldering to solder the THT components Only a single wave soldering process is encouraged for boards populated with AMY 6M 3 3 6 Rework Not recommended 3 3 7 Conformal coating Cert...

Page 43: ... external limited power source in compliance with the clause 2 5 of the standard IEC 60950 1 In addition to an external limited power source only separated or Safety Extra Low Voltage SELV circuits are to be connected to the module including interfaces and antennas For more information about SELV circuits see section 2 2 in Safety standard IEC 60950 1 6 ...

Page 44: ...ications Positioning Technology www positioningtechnology co uk Figure 36 1 channel GPS simulator 4 2 1 Guidelines for sensitivity tests 1 Connect a 1 channel GPS simulator to the OEM product 2 Choose the power level in a way that the Golden Device would report a C No ratio of 38 40 dBHz 3 Power up the DUT Device Under Test and allow enough time for the acquisition 4 Read the C No value from the N...

Page 45: ...tor of 100k to VDD_IO PIO8 EXTINT1 Leave open No need to populate resistor Input voltage levels have changed See AMY 6M Data Sheet 1 C2 Reserved Do not connect Reserved Do not connect no change C7 USB_DM Leave open if not used USB_DM Leave open if not used External series resistor should be changed to 22 Ohm instead of 27 Ohm if usb is used C8 PIO18 Leave open PIO18 Do not connect no change C9 PIO...

Page 46: ...nge G1 VDD_IO 1 65 3 6V VDD_IO 1 65 3 6V no change G2 TDI SAFEBOOT_ N Leave open if not used SAFEBOOT_N Leave open if not used no change G3 PIO3 SCL2 Leave open if not used SCL2 Leave open if not used no change G4 PIO2 SDA2 Leave open if not used SDA2 Leave open if not used no change G5 PIO5 TxD1 Leave open if not used TxD1 Leave open if not used no change G6 PIO4 RxD1 Pull up resistor of 100k to ...

Page 47: ...al Specifications 2 1 Load capacitance CL 9 pF 2 2 Equivalent series resistance RS 50 k Table 12 RTC Crystal specifications Manufacturer Order No Micro Crystal CC7V T1A 32 768 kHz 9 0 pF 100 ppm Table 13 Recommend parts list for RTC Crystal Y2 B 2 I2C Serial EEPROM memory Manufacturer Order No ST M24C32 R Microchip 24AA32A Catalyst CAT24C32 Samsung S524AB0X91 Table 14 Recommend parts list for I2C ...

Page 48: ...0 Recommend parts list for antenna supervisor switch transistor B 9 Ferrite bead filter FB1 Manufacturer Order No muRata BLM15HD102SN1 Table 21 Recommend parts list for the ferrite bead filter B 10Inductor L Manufacturer Order No muRata LQG15HS27NJ02 Table 22 Recommend parts list for inductor B 11Standard capacitors Name Use Type Value C1 RF input DC block COG 47P 5 25V C Decoupling Capacitor X5R ...

Page 49: ...limiter 10R 5 0 25W R38 Antenna supervisor voltage divider 560R 5 0 1W R39 Antenna supervisor voltage divider 100K 5 0 1W Table 24 Standard resistors B 13LNA LNA1 Manufacturer Order No MAXIM MAX2659ELT JRC NJG1143UA2 Table 25 recommended LNAs B 14SAW Filter F2 Manufacturer Order No Comments EPCOS B9415 B39162 B9415 K610 Low insertion loss EPCOS B9444 B39162 B9444 M410 Good wireless band suppressio...

Page 50: ...le voltage levels D D C D e v ice A D D C D e v ice B VDD SDA SCL GND Rp Rp SDA in SDA out SCL in SDA out SDA in SDA out SCL in SDA out Figure 37 A simple DDC connection The signal shape and the maximum rate in which data can be transferred over SDA and SCL is limited by the values of Rp and the wire and I O capacitance Cp Long wires and a large number of devices on the bus increase Cp therefore D...

Page 51: ...le cannot be changed during the normal operation afterward This model is an exception and should not be implemented if there are other participants on the bus contending for the bus control µC CPU etc As a slave on the bus the u blox 6 GPS receiver cannot initiate the data transfers The master node has the exclusive right and responsibility to generate the data clock therefore the slave nodes need...

Page 52: ...master MISO Master Input Slave Output data output from slave Alternative naming conventions are also widely used Confirm the pin signal naming with specific components used S P I S la v e MISO MOSI SCK SCS Figure 39 SPI slave SPI always follows the basic principle of a shift register During an SPI transfer command codes and data values are simultaneously transmitted shifted out serially and receiv...

Page 53: ...ther is a collision error that occurs for example when SPI devices work with different polarities Systems involving multiple microcontrollers are beyond the scope of this document Cascading slave peripherals is not supported Four I O pin signals are associated with SPI transfers the SCK the MISO data line the MOSI data line and the active low SCS SS_N pin In the unselected state the MISO lines are...

Page 54: ... and MOSI data pins are used for transmitting and receiving serial data When the SPI is configured as a master MISO is the master data input line and MOSI is the master data output line When the SPI is configured as a slave these pins reverse roles SCS SS_N In master mode the SCS output s select external slaves e g SCS1_N SCS2_N In slave mode SS_N is the slave select input The chip select pin beha...

Page 55: ...A Low Noise Amplifier LOS Line of sight NMEA 0183 ASCII based standard data communication protocol used by GPS receivers PUBX u blox proprietary extension to the NMEA protocol PVT Position Velocity Time SA Selective Availability SV Satellite Vehicle SBAS Satellite Based Augmentation Systems UBX File extension for u center log file or short form for the UBX protocol UBX Protocol A proprietary binar...

Page 56: ...bstore iec ch publication 4024 Additional information is available in the FAQ section of our website http www u blox com en faq html For regular updates to u blox documentation and to receive product change notifications please register on our homepage Revision history Revision Date Name Status Comments 21 10 2010 mdur Objective 1 03 02 2011 mdur Preliminary 2 11 04 2011 mdur Preliminary Soldering...

Page 57: ...ional 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 support_cn u blox com Regional Office China Shanghai Phone 86 21 6090 4832 E mail info_cn u blox com Support support_cn u blox com Regional Office China Shenzhen Phone 86 755 8627 1083 E mail info_cn u blox...