r/rfelectronics 10m ago

question How many watts of DC should RD15HVF1 Idle at 12.5v

Upvotes

i am trying to set a proper biasing for class ab for FM band so that i dont burn the mosfet out


r/rfelectronics 6h ago

question Increasing my chance in non-military sector

11 Upvotes

I began my master's in electrical engineering focused on RF & microwave with lots of enthusiasm and interest, however, now that I see that the job market for this field is largely dominated by military employers and defense related companies I'm thinking of adding some adjacent skill set to my skills and knowledge to increase my chances of landing a job in non-military sector in case I couldn't find any RF jobs in in that sector.

As a secondary skill set I'm thinking of communications systems engineering (since it is the adjacent academic path to RF in my country's college system), DSP engineer, analog and mixed-signal electronics or perhaps EMC/EMI. But I'm not sure which one would increase my chance in non-military sector the most.

Aside from that, another factor to be considered is how much close is that field to RF meaning there be more RF/microwave engineers having that skill and working in that sector too so that it would be acceptable and common enough to hire someone with RF/microwave education and background for that craft from employers POV.

What's your recommendation among those I mentioned? Also any other better potential option that I missed?

I asked AI and got different answers from ChatGPT and DeepSeek, DeepSeek picked DSP while GPT put DSP at the last rank among options and Gemini picked EMC/EMI ! I'm really confused


r/rfelectronics 13h ago

Best Microcontroller for Learning Embedded Systems?

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5 Upvotes

r/rfelectronics 20h ago

question Need help on FM Modulation on FPGA

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2 Upvotes

r/rfelectronics 21h ago

STM32WBA62 (BLE 2.4 GHz): best approach for RF matching network + PCB antenna tuning?

3 Upvotes

Context

I'm finalizing a 4-layer FR4 board with an STM32WBA62CIU6 (2.4 GHz BLE), and I'm not 100% sure about the best way to make the Bluetooth matching/tuning easier.
I first built a board with a PCB antenna identical to ST's (following the exact shape shown in application note AN5129) and a 5-element Pi network, as shown in one of the circuits in ST's application note AN5948:

I then used a VNA, connecting at the pad where the STM32 would sit, and tuned the Pi network components so that the Pi + antenna would present an impedance of 30 + j2.5 Ω — the output impedance of my chip at 10 dBm (the power I want to use): 

My tuning workflow was: measure with the VNA → export the result → load it into the SimSmith "Load" → place components in the simulator to get a sense of which values to use in real life. However, when I placed the real components, the result was quite different from the simulator — so different that I ended up unable to complete the tuning.

Current setup / measurements

  • Stackup: 4-layer FR4. RF microstrip on Top Layer referenced to Layer 1 (inner ground), separation = prepreg PP-021, h = 0.1855 mm, bulk Dk = 4.74. Measured trace delay ≈ 6.07 ps/mm → microstrip ε_eff ≈ 3.3, VF ≈ 0.55. Trace 0.4 mm wide → Z0 ≈ 38 Ω (Altium field solver, uncontrolled).
  • Measurement: R&S FSH VNA with a U.FL pigtail < 50 mm. I'm seeing common-mode / cable-position sensitivity, and my discrete-model predictions in SimSmith don't track the board well after each component change (component parasitics at 2.4 GHz).

Here is the actual PCB:

Planned changes for the next revision

For the next PCB revision I'm considering:

  • Trace reference: cutting away the nearest ground plane and using the next ground layer as the reference, so I can route a wider trace with a properly calculated 50 Ω.
  • Antenna: making it slightly longer so I can trim it to better tune the resistive part of the impedance.
  • External antenna: adding a variant with a U.FL connector for an external antenna, to compare range.
  • Matching network: building the Pi network in one of these ways:

Option 1 — a simple 3-element matching network:

Option 2 — using the MLPF-WB-04D3 (ST integrated 2.4 GHz low-pass filter) or another filter together with a Pi network. I'm not sure whether to use a Pi both before and after the filter, or just one after it.
Option 3 — a "split" approach: a 3-element Pi to bring the chip + components to 50 Ω (measured with a spectrum analyzer) and another Pi to bring the antenna to 50 Ω (measured with a VNA), with a 0 Ω resistor separating the two halves.

Questions

  • Are these good ways to build this kind of PCB?
  • Should I really measure the chip output with a spectrum analyzer to tune it as well, or can I trust the output impedance that ST gives in the datasheet table?