2.4 GHz Inverted F Antenna 
 
 
Keywords 
 
•  CC2400 
•  CC2420 
•  CC2430 
•  CC2431 
•  CC2500 
•  CC2510 
 
 
 
1 
Introduction 
Design Note   DN0007 
By Audun Andersen  
•  CC2511 
•  CC2550 
•  PCB Antenna 
•  2.4 GHz 
• 
 
 
Inverted F Antenna 
This  document  describes  a  PCB  antenna 
design that can be used with all 2.4 GHz 
transceivers  and  transmitters  from  Texas 
Instruments.  Maximum  gain  is  measured 
to  be  +3.3  dB  and  overall  size 
requirements for this antenna is 25.7 x 7.5 
mm. Thus, this is a compact, low cost and 
high performance antenna. 
 
 
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Table of Contents 
 
KEYWORDS.............................................................................................................................. 1 
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 
1 
ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................... 2 
2 
3 
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVERTED F ANTENNA DESIGN ......................................... 3 
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INVERTED F ANTENNA.......................................................... 3 
4 
RESULTS........................................................................................................................ 4 
RADIATION PATTERN.................................................................................................. 4 
REFLECTION ............................................................................................................ 11 
BANDWIDTH............................................................................................................. 11 
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 12 
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 13 
GENERAL INFORMATION .......................................................................................... 14 
DOCUMENT HISTORY................................................................................................ 14 
IMPORTANT NOTICE .................................................................................................. 15 
3.1 
4.1 
4.2 
4.3 
7.1 
5 
6 
7 
8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2 
Abbreviations 
 
EM 
IFA 
ISM 
PCB 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Evaluation Module 
Inverted F Antenna 
Industrial, Scientific, Medical 
Printed Circuit Board 
 
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Design Note   DN0007 
Description of the Inverted F Antenna Design 
 
 
3 
Since  the  impedance  of  the  Inverted  F  Antenna  is  matched  directly  to  50  ohm  no  external 
matching components are needed.  
Implementation of the Inverted F Antenna 
3.1 
It  is  important  to  make  an  exact  copy  of  the  antenna  dimensions  to  obtain  optimum 
performance. The easiest approach to implement the antenna in a PCB CAD tool is to import 
the  antenna  layout  from  either  a  gerber  or  DXF  file.  Such  files  are  included  in  CC2430DB 
reference design [1]. The gerber file is called “Inverted_F_Antenna.spl” and the DXF file is 
called “Inverted_F_Antenna.dxf”. If the antenna is implemented on a PCB that is wider than 
the antenna it is important to avoid placing components or having a ground plane close to the 
end points of the antenna. If the CAD tool being used doesn’t support import of gerber or DXF 
files, Figure 1 and Table 1 can be used.  
 
 
 
Figure 1. IFA Dimensions 
H1 
H2 
H3 
H4 
H5 
H6 
H7 
H8 
H9 
W1 
5.70 mm W2 
0.74 mm L1 
1.29 mm L2 
2.21 mm L3 
0.66 mm L4 
1.21 mm L5 
0.80 mm L6 
1.80 mm L7 
0.61 mm L8 
1.21 mm  
0.46 mm
25.58 mm
16.40 mm
2.18 mm
4.80 mm
1.00 mm
1.00 mm
3.20 mm
0.45 mm
Table 1. IFA Dimensions 
Since there is no ground plane beneath the antenna, PCB thickness will have little effect on 
the  performance.  The  results  presented  in  this  design  note  are  based  on  an  antenna 
implemented on a PCB with 1 mm thickness. 
 
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4 
Results 
All results presented in this chapter are based on measurements performed with CC2430DB 
[1]. 
4.1  Radiation Pattern 
Figure 2 shows how to relate all the radiation patterns to the orientation of the antenna. The 
radiation patterns were measured with CC2430 programmed to 0 dBm output power. 
 
XY plane 
 
 
 
XZ plane 
 
YZ plane 
 
Figure 2. How to Relate the Antenna to the Radiation Patterns 
 
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Figure 3. XY Plane Vertical Polarization 
 
 
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Figure 4. XY Plane Horizontal Polarization 
 
 
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Figure 5. XZ Plane Vertical Polarization 
 
 
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Figure 6. XZ Plane Horizontal Polarization 
 
 
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