Changing the World with WiFi

Here we go again, down an analog path to productivity.

Of course, you know what WiFi is. You can get it wherever money changes hands.  Being WiFi-enabled is a low-risk strategy when it comes to the number of hot-spots you're likely to pass through on a given day. The standard that the IEEE uses to regulate WiFi is the 802.11 document. The numbers are followed by letters like a, b, c, g, and n in some combination to indicate how the device will dice up the available bandwidth. Three of the standards, b, g, and n, use the popular 2.4 GHz space while a and c devices are in the 5 GHz range.

You talk about desense early or you talk about dropped packets later on.

From a PCB layout perspective, you should be taking measures to ensure that you have clean transmission lines at 2.5 GHz. Doubling the frequency to 5Ghz, (not to be confused with 5G -the latest trend in wireless communication) puts even more emphasis on avoiding discontinuities.

Some of the best practices that will help with this challenge are as follows:

• Shortest possible routing
• Fewest turns
• Compact placement
• No stubs
• Round off the edges of your traces rather than using a 45-degree bend for turns
• Routing on one layer
• Matching the component pad width to the RF line width
• Ground flood and stitching vias

We'll break these and more topics down in detail as the article continues here.

https://www.orcad.com/resources/blog/design-strategies-wifi-80211?utm_source=wifi&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=Burkhert