ATSAMB11-MR210CA/MR510CA [DATASHEET]

Atmel-42498D-SAMB11-MR210CA-MR510CA_Datasheet_09/2016

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9

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Figure 8-2.

No PCB/GND Cut Out Area

Atmel

No PCB area cut out

6.5 mm

22 mm

SAMB11

Module

8.1

Power and Ground

Dedicate one layer as a ground plane. Make sure that this ground plane does not get broken up by routes. Power

can route on all layers except the ground layer. Power supply routes should be heavy copper fill planes to ensure

the lowest possible inductance. The power pins of the module should have a via directly to the power plane as

close to the pin as possible. Decoupling capacitors should have a via right next to the capacitor pin and this via

should go directly down to the power plane

– that is to say, the capacitor should not route to the power plane

through a long trace. The ground side of the decoupling capacitor should have a via right next to the pad which

goes directly down to the ground plane. Each decoupling capacitor should have its own via directly to the ground

plane and directly to the power plane right next to the pad. The decoupling capacitors should be placed as close to

the pin that it is filtering as possible.

8.2

Interferers

One of the biggest problems with RF receivers is poor performance due to interferers on the board radiating noise

into the antenna or coupling into the RF traces going to input LNA. Care must be taken to make sure that there is

no noisy circuitry placed anywhere near the antenna or the RF traces. All noise generating circuits should also be

shielded so they do not radiate noise that is picked up by the antenna. Also, make sure that no traces route

underneath the RF portion of the SAMB11-MR210CA. Also, make sure that no traces route underneath any of the

RF traces from the antenna to the SAMB11-MR210CA input. This applies to all layers. Even if there is a ground

plane on a layer between the RF route and another signal, the ground return current will flow on the ground plane

and be coupled into the RF traces.