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8 Experts on Overcoming Challenges of RF Solution Design 7 • Hardware development cycle. This factor includes either building the RF circuit or using a wireless module that supports the communication protocols the solution requires. • Regulatory certification. All wireless devices must go through certification testing to verify that they meet the regulatory requirements of whatever region they will operate in. Certification testing is expensive and time consuming, and if a device fails, testing has to be done again. • Component availability. The inability to reliably source RF components can delay production and time to market, and swapping components after certification will require recertification. The design and development process must balance many factors to meet cost and time- to-market challenges. If you have the next hot widget, you want to get that to market before anybody else. That means finding the shortest, easiest path to product development, including everything related to RF. For many designs, using a wireless module that supports the required communication protocol is a smart move because it can shorten development time and lower costs in key ways. For example, if you are planning to use a chip-on-board discrete design, you need the RF front end, but you will also need components for filtering, decoupling, and impedance matching. Putting all that together requires a lot of work on the part of the RF engineer. Plus, all those components must be individually sourced by purchasing, and they need to be assembled during manufacturing. With a wireless module, the RF front end, filters, decoupling capacitors, and timing crystal are all assembled in a module that has been optimized to operate at a specific impedance. RF engineers can focus on signal integrity, clean power, and a good ground, saving on ''Using a wireless module that supports the required communication protocol is a smart move because it can shorten development time and lower costs in key ways."

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