Expert RF Hardware Design Tips & Resources for Full Stack Engineers

[donpacino]

Hey Everyone,

I am starting a new job in a few weeks. I have EE background with strong academic and professional background in power electronics, digital hardware design, control systems and low frequency analog circuit design (<100 kHz). I always joke around that I am an full stack hardware engineer minus RF. Not that I can't do it, just that I haven't very often.

Well my new job requires some level of RF hardware design, (wi-fi, BLE, and some others). I worked with these techs before as a hobby and even made an rf pcb or two using reference designs, not really anything custom. That being said I am not an RF pro and have not used a lot of the knowledge for a few years.

Does anyone have any references for a primer/refresher on RF/microwave hardware design? Or even some recommend trial circuits for me to build in ltspice or similar over the next week. I did some research on my own, but I've seen some amazing links posted from you all on this site and want to see if any of you will post anything useful or interesting.

Thanks!

 

[berkeman]

RF design in the GHz region is really for specialists, and not general EEs (even experienced ones). Your best bet, IMO, is to use proven modules in your RF designs, and just lay out your control PCBs to solder the module down onto it.

We use LSR modules here at my work for most of the RF designs. They come pre-approved with FCC ID numbers and MAC IDs, and are pretty easy and reliable to use. I just finished a new RF design at 2.4GHz based on a chipset, but we used a highly skilled RF Consultant to work with our layout folks to get it right. Absolutely non-trivial stuff, and you can literally waste engineer-years on designs if you don't get it right the first time.

https://www.lsr.com/embedded-wireless-modules

 

[scottdave]

I agree with @berkeman - when you get into those frequency ranges, the wavelength becomes smaller. It doesn't take much for a part of your circuit to become an antenna.