Quectel LTE-A Series Hardware Design page 61

Figure 35: Reference Design of Coplanar Waveguide on 4-layer PCB (Layer 4 as Reference
In order to ensure RF performance and reliability, the following principles should be complied with in RF
layout design:
⚫
Use an impedance simulation tool to accurately control the characteristic impedance of RF traces at
50 Ω.
⚫
The GND pins adjacent to RF pins should not be designed as thermal relief pads, and should be fully
connected to ground.
⚫
The distance between the RF pins and the RF connector should be as short as possible, and all the
right-angle traces should be changed to curved ones.
⚫
There should be clearance area under the signal pin of the antenna connector or solder joint.
⚫
The reference ground of RF traces should be complete. Meanwhile, adding some ground vias around
RF traces and the reference ground can help improve RF performance. The distance between the
ground vias and RF traces should be no less than two times the width of RF signal traces (2 × W).
⚫
Keep RF traces away from interference sources, and avoid intersection and parallel layout of traces
on adjacent layers.
For more details about RF layout, please refer to document [4].
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LTE-A Module Series
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