PCB design for SMA connector
I'm posting this because i have not found a thread that asks what i want to know. I would like to connect an SMA connector to a pcb to read off signals and i cannot seem to find any good guide/ tutorial on proper pcb design for SMA connectors. If anybody knows of any good sites or books that will help explain this, that will be much appreciated.
I don't think that SMA connectors are any different to any other sort of RF connector as far as PCB layout is concerned.
Make sure the tracks are short and guarded by a ground plane.
To my mind the more important aspect is to make sure that the SMA connector is mechanically well connected to the PCB as it will be where people will put strain on the part as they attach an antenna to it.
Susan
Almost every manufacturer manufactures SMA connectors for PCBs.There is no difficulty at all to mount or solder them.
Read a bit their catalogues and application notes.
thank you guys for your replies and great info, is there any reference on general guidelines how to adequately guard the tracks by ground? At this time i've seen examples of people using vias to ground on both sides of a signal trace but l can't find anything formal on how to do this right. Otherwise tips and tricks are great but I think i really need a starting point so i can understand the concept better and not just do things cause they feel right.
I think Susan, was describing a ground plane on the layer under the footprint of the SMA connector and keeping the connections to the output stage near the SMA connector as short as possible and also over that ground layer (guarding the signals from other internal layers). I kind of doubt you would see much improvement by adding any ground traces (sheilds) running next to the signals on the same layer with the ground stitching you appear to be talking about (unless you plan on running noisy high frequency digital signals near your SMAs ).
Nothing is complicated about SMA connectors.
thank you ads-ee, at this time, most(if not all) signals in proximity are analog. One of my main concerns is that i'm routing signals using a relay network that only flips in beginning of the operation and stays constant for the rest of the time but this network makes my traces inherently long. Any suggestions dealing with mechanical relay networks or unavoidable long traces would be much appreciated!