50 ohm trances video on KiCAD 5/4

General Electronics
1

Hi,

I really appreciate the great new videos series for KiCAD 5!! Keep up the good work :slight_smile:
even the older video helped me a lot to start using KiCAD about a two years ago.

Since I have a lot of interest in LoRa technology, I’ve been looking around to better understand the management and design of RF traces. Most will mention making the trace 50ohm and to reserve a pi matching circuits between module and antenna.

I never really found any great video on this subject ( see a trace calculator in KiCAD or even online) and would really like to better understand what’s needed with design, trace placement, and even PCB manufacture possible pitfalls in a cool simple to understand type of Chris video. :slight_smile:

is this a possible youtube video candidate?

2

I’ll have to do some research into this (haven’t had to do much myself) but am hoping to do more RF designs this year as well.

3

There are a number of “good enough” calculators: https://www.eeweb.com/tools/microstrip-impedance

https://www.eeweb.com/tools

Key is knowing the names of the various transmission line constructions, copper thicknesses and FR4 dielectric constants.

Beyond this, it is pretty much just setting up custom design rules for these routes and thats it. Besides complex RF circuit layouts or custom antennas, these nothing too complicated about it.

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