ESP32 PCB Antenna Design

[Prasad]

Hello,

I was searching for PCB antenna design for ESP32. In the hardware design guideline document it state that to follow Espressif’s Type-B antenna, but i couldn't find it. Any leads or advices to design the PCB antenna is highly appreciated.

ESP32 Hardware Design Guideline document - https://www.espressif.com/sites/default ... nes_en.pdf

Page 13 second para

Thanks in advance!
P.

[Franco]

Hi Prasad, you can download the modules' reference designs from www.espressif.com/en/support/download/documents , ESP32-WROOM-32D and ESP32-WROVER-B have the latest antenna designs. You may also directly use modules, unless you have reasons for designing your own layout.

[Prasad]

Hi Franco,

Thanks for jumping in to help. Unfortunately the reference designs are done with Mentor Graphics/Pads VX.2, Which is a commercial software, and there is no way for me to use it. The other possibility is to measure the PCB antenna from the PCB layout pdf file and recreate it using a vector software and import in to KiCad(In my case i'm using KiCad)

Regards,
P.

[Prasad]

Anyone at Espressif can help me out with this? Most or the RF module manufacturers provide spec for the PCB antenna for their design. But unfortunately i can't find such thing anywhere in Espressif domain, or at least Google can't find it . Here are some samples i found by googling,

Cypress - http://www.cypress.com/file/136236/download
NXP - https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/nxp/applica ... N11994.pdf
TI - http://www.ti.com/lit/an/swra117d/swra117d.pdf

Anyone got Pads PCB designer can help me out to measure the dimensions of the ESP Wroom 32 reference design?

https://www.espressif.com/en/content/es ... selves-r10

[loboris]

There is nothing special about PCB antenna design for ESP32. You can use any WiFi antenna design, including ones in the documents you mentioned.

[Prasad]

Thanks loboris, I'm gonna try TI's SWRA117D antenna design and i'll post the result here.

[ESP_Stone]

Sorry, we didn't have any KiCAD libraries. Add dxf file of Antenna Type-B, and hope this would be helpful for you.
Thanks.

[Prasad]

Hi Stone,

Thank you for the DXF file. Indeed it helps. Also Angus mentioned to measure the dimensions through Gerber viewer using generated Gerber files in the reference files. Heres reverent thread,

https://www.esp32.com/viewtopic.php?f=1 ... 523#p34523

Thank you,
P .

[!=YNGVV]

Hi Prasad,

I'm doing the same thing as you now. Did you just trace TI's antenna on your top layer based on the dimensions provided in their AN043 reference design? What was your impedance matching cirucit (values and arrangement)? I'm a student trying to learn how to set this up and would appreciate some insight on how well your matching network worked! Thanks for sharing.

[Prasad]

Hi YNGVV,

Sorry for the late reply mate. Anyway, I've shared my KiCAD footprint on Github. I have tested this with JLCPCB and it worked great.

https://github.com/prasad-dot-ws/ESP32_MIFA_PCB_ANTENNA


Also here is the impedance calculator if you are interested.

https://jlcpcb.com/client/index.html#/i ... alculation

Regards,
P.