The Angle of Arrival BoosterPack™ kit (BOOSTXL-AOA) is an easy-to-use plug-in module equipped with antenna arrays suitable for evaluation of Angle of Arrival applications. The 2 orthogonal antenna arrays each consist of 3 dipole antennas tuned for operation at 2.4 GHz. The antennas are selected with RF switches and then connected to a single JSC connector. The JSC Series connector is used to connect to an AoA compatible RF receiver like the CC2640R2 LaunchPad™.
BOOSTXL-AoA is designed to be used with the CC2640R2 LaunchPad and are following
the BoosterPack™
Module Pinout Standard.
The BOOSTXL-AoA board contains two orthogonal arrays, each with three dipole antennas.
Each antenna array can theoretically cover an angle on the incoming signal up to ±90°. When using both arrays combined, a coverage of up to ±135° is achievable
(The two antenna arrays overlap 45° on each side).
Dipole antennas are by nature differential and needs to be fed with a balanced signal.
A balanced signal is created using a marchand balun that is integrated in the PCB. The single ended side of the baluns are fed to the antenna switches (U2 and U3).
The array switch, U1, is used to connect each array to the JSC connector.
The three RF antenna switches (U1, U2 and U3) are controlled by DIO27 to DIO30. The control logic is shown in the table below.
DIO27 | DIO28 | DIO29 | DIO30 | Antenna |
---|---|---|---|---|
The RED and GREEN LEDs are connected to DIO6 (RED) and DIO7 (GREEN) as on the CC2640R2 LaunchPad.
BOOSTXL-AoA design files can be found here.
Test setup for measuring AoA performance on a BOOSTXL-AoA in an anechoic RF chamber can be seen below.
Before starting developing Angle of Arrival applications it's recommended to read the Localization Toolbox section of the
BLE-Stack User's Guide
Software examples for the Angle of Arrival BoosterPack™ kit
(BOOSTXL-AOA) used together with a CC2640R2 LaunchPad can be found in the
CC2640R2 SDK (v2.40.00.xx or newer).
The BoosterPack is designed to be powered from the 3V3 supply of a compatible LaunchPad through the BoosterPack connector.
The BoosterPack is designed for operation from -40°C to +85°C. Note that other BoosterPack accessories and LaunchPads may have different temperature ranges, and when combined, the combination will be set by the most restrictive combined range.