Designing good enough Near Field Probes
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Ey reader! Most of the times, we take for granted the complexity of things we use every day. One example is Near-Field Probes There are many out there, from 10 € to 2000 €. They all seem to work in the same way:
Easy, right? What if I ask you to build one or two from scratch? ... Not that easy, right? That exactly happened to me when I decided to design my own kit On one hand, we have the outcomes we want to achieve: sensitivity, spatial resolution, frequency range, shielding. On the other hand, what we can modify in our design: PCB materials, vias (number and arrangement), Stackup, Routing… How those two categories are linked to each other? Since I could not find an direct answer, I started drawing: Not much easier, huh? Then, I understood one point that was getting me crazy since a while: why there are so many varieties of probes in the market. Each model, price and type existing in shops cover a specific set of the characteristics described above. Near field probes are tools made by engineers, detailed oriented people that are afraid of not covering all the corner cases. That is why we have so many probes The question is… How to design something that is enough? Remember… That is everything for today. We will continue designing our good enough probes Happy building! ⚒️ Ignacio |