r/rfelectronics

Can FR4 be used for a 100W RF Power amplifier?

Hello, I would like to know if I can use FR4 for my RF power amplifier operating at a narrowband frequency of 805 MHz. I initially designed the amplifier using RO4350B, but few US manufacturers supply that substrate, and it is more expensive, even though it is the material used by the vendor of my BLP981 transistor. I know FR4 should work well at that operating frequency, but given that I am generating 100 W, I think that could pose a problem. Could I use FR4?

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u/Lubravi — 4 days ago

▲ 16 r/rfelectronics

I’m building Fairbeam, a free and open-source antenna simulation app

Hey everyone! I’ve been working on Fairbeam, a free and open-source app for designing and simulating antennas, and thought some of you might enjoy trying it.

It brings 3D modeling, meshing, simulation, and plots into one workspace, using openEMS, CSXCAD, and three.js. You can draw a model visually or use Python, then inspect S-parameters and radiation patterns.

It’s available for macOS and Windows, with experimental Linux support. Optional GPU acceleration uses CUDA on NVIDIA GPUs and Metal on Apple silicon.

It’s still early, so I’d love to hear what feels useful, what’s confusing, and what breaks. The code is GPL-3.0-or-later. Feel free to dig in, change things, or contribute an example!

Website: https://fairbeam.org

Code: https://github.com/ismailakdag/fairbeam

As with any simulation tool, please check the results against a reference you trust.

u/isomoki — 4 days ago

▲ 1 r/rfelectronics

How to improve fabrication tolerance of a circularly polarized microstrip antenna?

Hello everyone. I’m working on a circularly polarized truncated patch antenna, but the design is hyper-sensitive to dimensions. A ±0.1 mm deviation completely collapses the axial ratio, making it impractical for standard fabrication. How can I solve this problem?

Edit: Even if I just increase the meshes without changing anything in the design, the axial ratio collapses.

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u/SpiritGlittering3287 — 11 days ago