NXP Semiconductors QN9090 Manuale utente

JN-RM-2079

QN9090 module development reference manual

Rev. 1.0 —17 Jan 2020

Reference manual

Document information

Info

Content

Keywords

QN9090, module

Abstract

Reference Manual for QN9090 modules and platform design.

NXP Semiconductors

JN-RM-2079

QN9090 module development reference manual

JN-RM-2079

All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.

Reference manual

Rev. 1.0 —17 Jan 2020

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Contact information

For more information, please visit: http://www.nxp.com

Revision history

Rev

Date

Description

1.0

20200117

Creation

NXP Semiconductors

JN-RM-2079

QN9090 module development reference manual

JN-RM-2079

All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.

Reference manual

Rev. 1.0 —17 Jan 2020

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1. Introduction

This manual describes the hardware for the reference designs for modules based around

the NXP QN9090 wireless microcontroller. The NXP QN9090 modules are small, low-

power and cost-effective evaluation and development board or application prototyping

and demonstration of the QN9090 device.

The QN9090 is an ultra-low-power, highly integrated single-chip device that enables

Standard Bluetooth Low Energy RF connectivity for portable, extremely low-power

embedded systems.

The QN9090 SoC integrates a radio transceiver operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band

supporting BLE Radio, an ARM Cortex-M4 processor, up to 640 kB flash,152 kB SRAM

and 128 kB ROM, BLE Link layer processing hardware and peripherals optimized to

meet the requirements of the target applications.

The design considerations presented in this manual are equally valid for bespoke

solutions where the QN9090 device is placed directly onto the product PCB.

Three modules models are available:

•QN9090-001-M10

•QN9090-001-M13

The models available are described in Table 1.

In order to complete a successful PCB design by your own the hardware guidelines

described in this reference manual must be followed as strictly as possible. Further

information on the QN9090 characteristics are available in the “QN9090 Bluetooth Low

Energy 5.0 Wireless Microcontroller” datasheet.

The QN9090-001-M10 module has been fitted to a mezzanine board (OM15077) for use

on the QN9090 evaluation kits. The module is known as QN9090-001-T10.

1.1 Audience

This guide is intended for systems designers

1.2 Regulatory approvals

The QN9090-001-M10 and M13 are compliant with:

•RED 2014/53/EU

•CFR 47 FCC part 15

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QN9090 module development reference manual

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Reference manual

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2. Reference Design

The reference design package includes the following information for each module

variant:

•Reference manual: JN-RM-2079

•Schematics

•Layout

•Bill-of-Materials

Full design databases including schematics and layout source files are available on

request.

The following table provides a summary of the QN9090 Module Reference Design that is

available from the Wireless Connectivity area of the NXP web site.

Table 1. Modules references

Part number

Description

Content

Reference

Manual

JN-RD-6058

QN9090

Module

Reference

Design

Package

OM15069

Standard Power

PCB Antenna

QN9090-001-M10

JN-RM-2079

OM15069

Standard Power

Fl connector

QN9090-001-M13

Note: These reference designs are approved for the operating temperature range of

−40 ºC to +125 ºC.

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3. Block diagram

Fig 1. QN9090-001-M10 & M13 block diagrams

4. Design considerations

To have successful wireless hardware development, the proper device footprint, RF

layout, circuit matching, antenna design, and RF measurement capability are essential.

RF circuit design, layout, and antenna design are specialties requiring investment in tools

and experience. With available hardware reference designs from NXP, RF design

considerations, and the guidelines contained in this application note, hardware engineers

can successfully design BLE radio boards with good performance levels. The following

figures show the QN9090 M10 & M13 reference modules. They contain the QN9090

device and all necessary I/O connections.

QN9090

Matching

connector

QN9090-001-M10

QN9090

Matching

Printed

antenna

QN9090-001-M13

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QN9090 module development reference manual

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Fig 2. QN9090-001-M10 & M13

The device footprint and layout are critical as the RF performance is affected by the

design implementation. For these reasons, use of the NXP recommended RF hardware

reference designs are important for successful board performance. Additionally, the

reference platforms have been optimized for radio performance. Even small changes in

the location of components can mistune the circuit. If the recommended footprint and

design are followed exactly in the RF region of the board, sensitivity, output power,

harmonic and spurious radiation, and range will have a high likelihood of first-time

success.

The following subsections describe important considerations when implementing a

wireless hardware design starting with the device footprint, PCB stack-up, RF circuit

implementation, and antenna selection. The following figure shows an example of a

typical layout with the critical RF section which must be copied exactly for optimal radio

performance. The less critical layout area can be modified without reducing radio

performance.

NOTE:

Exact dimensions are not given in this document, but can be found in the manufacturing

files for the QN9090 modules

4.1 QN9090 device footprint

The performance of the wireless link is largely influenced by the device’s footprint. As a

result, a great deal of care has been put into creating a footprint so that receiver

sensitivity and output power are optimized to enable board matching and minimal

component count. NXP highly recommends copying the die flag exactly as it is shown in

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QN9090 module development reference manual

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Reference manual

Rev. 1.0 —17 Jan 2020

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the following figure; this includes via locations as well. Deviation from these parameters

can cause performance degradation.

Fig 3. Critical Layout of die flag area

Fig 3 shows the critical areas of the device die flag. These are the following:

•Ground vias and locations

•RF output and ground traces

•Die flag shape

4.2 PCB Stack-Up

Complexity is the main factor that will determine whether the design of an application

board can be two-layer, four-layer, or more. From an RF point of view a 4 layers PCB

is preferred to a two layers PCB. Nevertheless, in a very simple application it should

be possible to use a 2 layers PCB.

The recommended board stack-up for either a four-layer or two-layer board design is

as follows:

•4-layer stack-up:

—Top: RF routing of transmission lines

—L2: RF reference ground

—L3: DC power

—Bottom: signal routing

•Two-layer stack-up:

—Top: RF routing of transmission lines, signals, and ground

—Bottom: RF reference ground, signal routing, and general ground

RFIO

GND vias

Die flag

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QN9090 module development reference manual

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The QN9090-001-M10 and QN9090-001-M13 (OM15069) modules are built on a

standard 4–layer printed circuit board (PCB) with the individual layers organized as

shown in Fig 4.

Fig 4. PCB stack-up

Note: The NXP PCB layouts assume use of the layers defined above. If a different PCB

stack-up is used, then NXP does not guarantee performance.

NXP strongly recommends the use of the above stack-up.

As shown in Fig 4, regarding transmission lines, it is important to copy not just the

physical layout ofthe circuit, but also the PCB stack-up. Any small change in the

thickness of the dielectric substrate under the transmission line will have a significant

change in impedance; all this information can be found on the fabrication notes for

each board design. As an illustration, consider a 50-ohm microstriptrace that is 18-mils

wide over 10 mils of FR4. If that thickness of FR4 is changed from 10 to 6 mils, the

impedance will only be about 36 ohms.

In any case the width of the RF lines must be re-calculated according to the PCB

characteristics in order to ensure a 50-ohm characteristic impedance.

When the top layer dielectric becomes too thin, the layers will not act as a true

transmission line, even though all the dimensions are correct. There is not universal

industry agreement on which thickness at which this occurs, but NXP prefers to use a

top layer dielectric thickness of no less than 8-10 mils.

There is also a limit to the ability of PCB fabricators to control the minimum width of a

PCB trace and

the minimum thickness of a dielectric layer. +/- 1 mil will have less

impact onan 18-mils wide

trace and a 10-mil thick dielectric layer, than it will on a much

narrower trace and thinner top layer.

This can be an especially insidious problem. The design will appear to be optimized

with the limited

quantityofprototypeandinitialproductionboards,inwhichthebare

PCB'swereallfabricatedinthesame

lot.However,whenthe productgoesintomass

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productiontherecanbevariations in PCBfabricationfrom

lot-to-lot which can degrade

performance.

The use of a correct substrate like the FR4 with a dielectric constant of 4.4 will assist you

in achieving a good RF design.

While no special measures are required for the board design, it is recommended that

Class 1 tolerances be used.

4.3 RF circuit topology and matching

NXP always recommends that designers start by copying the existing NXP reference

design. This

applies to both the circuit portion (schematic) of the design, and the PCB

layout. For all RF designs, particularlyfor designs at frequencies as high as 2.4 GHz, the

PCB traces are a part of the design itself.

Even a very short trace has a small amount of

parasitic impedance (usually inductive), which has to be

compensated for in the

remainder of the circuit.

What may seem like a minor change to the layout, or what would certainly be a minor

change at a lower

frequencyof operation,canactually bea significantchange at 2.4 GHz.

For example, we may consider that a metal trace on a PCB such as the QN9090-001M1x

modules is approximately 0.8 nH per mm. At lower frequencies, this would have

impact, but at 2.4 GHz this would have a significant impact in any matching circuits.

The circuits used on the NXP reference designs are all tuned and optimized on the

actual layout of the

reference design, such that the final component values take into

account the effects of the circuit board

traces,andother parasiticeffectsintroducedby

thePCB.Thisincludessuchissuesasparasiticcapacitance

between components,

traces, and/or board copper layers, inductance of traces and ground vias, the non-ideal

effects of components, and nearby physical objects.

The layout of the RF portions of QN9090 based modules is critical. It is important that the

reference designs are strictly adhered to, otherwise the following may occur:

•Reduction in RF output

•Excessive spurious RF outputs leading to RF compliance issues

•Unacceptable power slope across the full channel range

•Poor range

•Reduced Rx sensitivity

4.4 Transmission lines

Transmission lines have several shapes such as microstrip, coplanar waveguide,

and strip-line. For BLE applications built on FR4 substrates, the types of

transmission lines typically take the form of microstrip or coplanar waveguide

(CPW). These two structures are defined by the dielectric constant of the board

material, trace width, and the board thickness between the trace and the ground.

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Additionally, for CPW, the transmission line is defined by the gap between the trace

and the top edge ground plane. These parameters are used to define the

characteristic impedance of the transmission line (trace) that is used to convey the

RF energy between the radio and the antenna.

QN9090 has a single ended RF output with a 3-component matching network

composed of a shunt capacitor, a series inductor then another shunt capacitor. In

addition, a 0-ohm resistor has been placed between the RFIO port of the chip and

the first shunt capacitor. These elements transform the device impedance to 50

ohms. The value of these components may vary depending on your specific board

layout. The recommended RF matching network is shown in Fig 5.

Avoid routing traces near or parallel to RF transmission lines or crystal signals.

Maintaining a continuous ground under an RF trace is critical to maintaining the

characteristic impedance of that trace. Avoid any routing on the ground layer that

will result in disrupting the ground under the RF traces.

Keep the RF trace as short as possible.

Fig 5. RF Matching Network

4.5 Components

All electronic components have parasitic characteristics that cause the part to act in a

non-ideal way. Typically, these effects become worse as the frequency of operation is

increased.

Controlled impedance trace

(50 ohm microstrip)

RF Match

Printed antennaµFl connector

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