How does the discrete RF match of the 2.4GHz EFR32 Series 1 PA look?
Answer
The integrated 2.4 GHz PA is a differential PA and there is an on-chip balun as well for the 2.4 GHz part which does the differential to single-ended conversion, but does not do the impedance match to 50 ohms. That is why a simple external (single-ended to single-ended) L-C ladder-structured matching network is required for impedance matching and filtering purposes. The 50-ohm point after the external L-C structure is basically needed for conducted validation capabilities. At the output power level of +10dBm or below the 2-element L-C matching network is recommended, but above +10dBm the 4-element L-C-L-C network is suggested in order to have enough margins at the harmonics.
Of course, a single-ended antenna can directly be designed at the chip pin which would require to have approx. 20+j10 ohms antenna impedance, but this wouldn't allow having separate tuning possibilities for the conducted spectrum including the harmonic filtering.
USART0_INIT (defined in app\util\serial\com_config.h) is the UART instance that gets initialized and used by the ASH protocol. Key things in a custom board header file for NCP UART: - Undefine COM_RETARGET_SERIAL as this would result in inclusion of a number of default header files that eventually define USART0 to the default GPIOs used by the EFR32 Mighty Gecko Wireless SoC Starter Kit main board. Generally you don't want to use the RETARGET_* defines on custom hardware unless you route USART0 the exact same way as our development board does. - Define USART0_TX_LOCATION, USART0_RX_LOCATION etc. (that are used in USART0_INIT in com.h) to the correct ports/pins/locations based on hardware design.
Which GPIOs are used on the EFR32MG NCP-UART and NCP-SPI?
Answer
For the pre-built NCP images we include in EmberZNet releases for EFR32MG1P132F256GM48 and EFR32MG1P232F256GM48 variants (included in our Mighty Gecko Wireless SoC Starter Kit):
Zigbee & Thread Knowledge Base
EFR32 Series 1 2.4GHz discrete RF match
Question
How does the discrete RF match of the 2.4GHz EFR32 Series 1 PA look?
Answer
The integrated 2.4 GHz PA is a differential PA and there is an on-chip balun as well for the 2.4 GHz part which does the differential to single-ended conversion, but does not do the impedance match to 50 ohms. That is why a simple external (single-ended to single-ended) L-C ladder-structured matching network is required for impedance matching and filtering purposes. The 50-ohm point after the external L-C structure is basically needed for conducted validation capabilities. At the output power level of +10dBm or below the 2-element L-C matching network is recommended, but above +10dBm the 4-element L-C-L-C network is suggested in order to have enough margins at the harmonics.
Of course, a single-ended antenna can directly be designed at the chip pin which would require to have approx. 20+j10 ohms antenna impedance, but this wouldn't allow having separate tuning possibilities for the conducted spectrum including the harmonic filtering.
More info can be found in the application note AN930.1: https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/application-notes/an930.1-efr32-series-1.pdf
UART configuration for EFR32MG custom UART NCP image
GPIOs used for the pre-built EFR32MG NCP images