IWR1443: Antenna surface finish with gold

Koichiro Tashiro

Part Number: IWR1443

Hi,

On TI mmWave boards, antenna surface is immersion silver finished.
I know this is TI recommendation, but my customer wants to use gold instead of silver.

Are there any concerns in performance to use gold?

Thanks and regards,
KoT

over 7 years ago

0 Charles Oladimeji over 7 years ago

TI__Mastermind 33805 points

Hi,

See snippet from documents below

"Plating affects RF characteristics. Most common plating used in industry, Electroless Nickel-Immersion Gold (ENIG), is not a good choice for mmWave boards due to its high losses. TI EVM uses immersion silver plating that has lesser loss, comparatively. However, immersion silver is susceptible to oxidation on prolonged exposure to air. This oxidation does not impact the RF performance. However, proper storage of the PCB is recommended to reduce the oxidation. Over and under plating of top-layer copper can result in phase and loss/reflection variations."

http://www.ti.com/lit/an/spracg5/spracg5.pdf

also see E2E post below that discusses the subject

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensor/mmwave_sensors/f/1023/p/646257/2374888

Regards,

Charles O

Sensors

Sensors forum

IWR1443: Antenna surface finish with gold