Best way to arrange NFC, ethernet and zigbee on a board

[kuon]

Hello,

I am building a carrier board for a toradex module (https://developer.toradex.com/products/colibri-imx7), and I need to put ethernet, NFC and zigbee (xbee) on it.

The final product will be something looking like an android tablet, except a little bit thicker (monitoring station for a medical product) with a few connectors on the side. For my application, I need a bit a greater range (15cm), and the required antenna is about the size of my display (10"). I already did a PCB with only the the NFC chip and the trace antenna and it works.

The general PCB layout would be like so:



I plan to put the NFC (13.56Mhz) trace antenna and the Xbee (2.4Ghz) module on the back of the PCB (facing outside), and the rest (ethernet jack, toradex module and all the supporting components and connectors) on the front of the PCB, squeezed between the PCB and the display. I might also squeeze a battery between the display and the PCB (on the module/connectors side).

Would this configuration be a problem? (NFC crossing ethernet, NFC interfering with the module...)

Any input would help me greatly.

[LtPluto]

Hi kuon

There is a big Toradex Community Channel, where you can ask questions regarding Toradex Modules directly to the engineers.

https://www.toradex.com/community/

From my small expierence with
https://b2bsol.panasonic.biz/semi-spt/apl/en/tool/nfcdesignnavigator/#

I wouldn't suggest you to put any additional metal plates within the antenna. You will get disturbances and have to retune the antenna.
The Toradex Modules have Ground and Power Supply planes.

If you don't have any space problems, I would separate electronics and antenna.

Here some nice webinars about PCB and antenna design:
https://www.nxp.com/pages/nfc-antenna-design-3-metal-environment:TIP-ANTENNA-METAL-ENVIRONMENT-VIDEO
There are 6 

In your case, I would put the Toradex Module as close as possible to the connectors.
It is also good for the Ethernet MDI signals to be as short as possible.

https://docs.toradex.com/102492-layout-design-guide.pdf

As a result you have a lot of space for the antenna and no metal plane within.
But that is only my suggestion for you.

Good Luck
LtPluto