Antenna Boosters Versus Meander Antennas for Bluetooth Module Integration

Abstract

The Bluetooth standard is widely used in the Internet of Things (IoT) and other wireless devices, typically embedded in modules as they are easier to use and integrate into a design, and they are already certified. In this paper, a common meander-type antenna is compared to an antenna booster in a 21 × 14 mm2 module. Furthermore, as the final placement of the module on the device and its dimensions remain undetermined, both modules have been evaluated in four different positions of the device (left corner, short-edge center, right corner, long-edge center) for three different Printed Circuit Board (PCB) sizes of 50 × 50 mm2, 75 × 50 mm2, and 100 × 50 mm2. A module antenna system should be robust enough to cover 2.4-2.484GHz for all 12 setups without the need to change either the antenna geometry and/or the matching network, as you cannot change the Bill of Materials (BoM) of the module once you have passed certification. This ensures optimal antenna performance regardless of its position. The results demonstrate that the antenna booster outperforms the meander antenna in all four module positions, with an average measured total efficiency improvement of 2 dB, 1.7 times more range, and more resilience to module positions on the PCB.