Free tool to optimise antenna placement on a PCB

Antenova has developed this tool to assist product designers who do not have access to antenna skills in-house. The tool should help designers to place the antenna in the best position early in the design process and achieve a working wireless design more easily. It can be used for one single antenna, or up to three antennas.

Antenna placement becomes more complex when there is more than one antenna in the design, as each antenna needs to be able to radiate correctly without causing interference to the others. With this in mind, Antenova has created the tool to position up to three antennas from different categories or a pair of antennas in a diversity configuration.

Antenova’s placement tool will be valuable for designers creating layouts for the small PCBs within some of the latest trackers and mobile devices. As well as showing the best position for the antenna, the tool displays the “keep-out” area adjacent to the antenna, which must be kept free of other components. Like this it will help designers to pack components as closely as possible and save space in the design.

Michael Castle, Product Marketing Manager at Antenova, said: “RF engineering skills are in short supply, and not all designers have access to antenna specialists, so we are offering our Antenna Placement Tool to help designers start their wireless design and achieve a successful layout first time round.”