TIDA029A july   2019  – june 2023 CC2640R2F-Q1 , CC2642R , CC2642R-Q1

 

  1.   1
  2.   Bluetooth Angle of Arrival (AoA) Antenna Design
  3.   Trademarks
  4. 1Introduction
  5. 2Angle of Arrival Antenna Design Considerations
    1. 2.1 Antenna Spacing
    2. 2.2 RF Switch Considerations
  6. 3Dipole Antenna Array
    1. 3.1 Dipole Antenna Strengths and Weaknesses
    2. 3.2 Angle Measurement Plane
    3. 3.3 PCB Implementation
    4. 3.4 Two Dipole Array Test Results
      1. 3.4.1 Total Radiated Power (TRP)
      2. 3.4.2 Measuring Antenna 1 and 2 Phase Difference
        1. 3.4.2.1 Bare PCB
        2. 3.4.2.2 PCB + RF Absorbing Material
        3. 3.4.2.3 PCB + RF Absorbing Material + Tin-Plated Copper Foil
        4. 3.4.2.4 PCB + RF Absorbing Material + Tin-Plated Copper Foil + Metal
      3. 3.4.3 Phase Difference vs Distance
  7. 4Calculating AoA From IQ Measurements
    1. 4.1 Dipole Antenna Array Uncompensated Angle of Arrival Results
      1. 4.1.1 Bare PCB Uncompensated AoA
      2. 4.1.2 PCB + RF Absorbing Material Uncompensated AoA
      3. 4.1.3 PCB + RF Absorbing Material + Tin-Plated Copper Foil Uncompensated AoA
      4. 4.1.4 PCB + RF Absorbing Material + Tin-Plated Copper Foil + Metal Uncompensated AoA
    2. 4.2 Dipole Antenna Array Compensated AoA Results
      1. 4.2.1 Bare PCB AoA With Compensation
      2. 4.2.2 PCB + RF Absorbing Material + Tin-Plated Copper Foil Compensated AoA
      3. 4.2.3 PCB + RF Absorbing Material + Tin-Plated Copper Foil + Metal Compensated AoA
      4. 4.2.4 Hardware Setup Compensated Results Comparison
  8. 5References
  9. 6Revision History

1 Introduction

Bluetooth® angle of arrival (AoA) measures the angle or direction a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transmitted signal approaches a Bluetooth receiver. To calculate the AoA, two or more antennas are required to measure the phase of an incoming signal.

GUID-C7B57369-D666-44F8-85F7-5DF6A68F02A2-low.png Figure 1-1 Transmitter Phase Measured by Antenna Array

The phase measurements from each antenna are used to calculate the AoA and determine the direction of the transmitted signal. This application note explains AoA antenna design considerations, shows test results from some antenna arrays, and demonstrates how to calculate the AoA measurement from the phase measurement data of the antenna array. For more background information on Bluetooth AoA, see the Bluetooth Low Energy Angle of Arrival (AoA) SimpleLink Academy and the BLE-Stack User's Guide.