Why does my RF PCB have small holes in the ground polygon?

I ordered RF PCB design and prototype from my supplier . There are something like a hole, but it is not, on the ground surface. What is the purpose of making these holes? The PCB is inside of the E70 433NW14S LoRa module.

The space between copper planes can act as waveguides for RF frequencies. It makes trace impedance changes and signal losses.

To cut such waveguide effect, put vias, which is essentially a copper cylinder.

When the distances between vias are small enough compared to the wavelength, the board is like continuous copper material, instead of waveguide.

Read More: Prototype PCB Assembly

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Oliver Smith

Oliver is an experienced electronics engineer skilled in PCB design, analog circuits, embedded systems, and prototyping. His deep knowledge spans schematic capture, firmware coding, simulation, layout, testing, and troubleshooting. Oliver excels at taking projects from concept to mass production using his electrical design talents and mechanical aptitude.
Picture of Oliver Smith

Oliver Smith

Oliver is an experienced electronics engineer skilled in PCB design, analog circuits, embedded systems, and prototyping. His deep knowledge spans schematic capture, firmware coding, simulation, layout, testing, and troubleshooting. Oliver excels at taking projects from concept to mass production using his electrical design talents and mechanical aptitude.

What Others Are Asking

Do I have to protect PCB from radio frequency reflection?

I am designing a system on megahertz frequency bands (~ 400-1000MHz.) This device is connected to a variable antenna which does not necessarily stay in match with the circuit so there will be some reflection of the power back to the circuit. The feeding power would not be more than 0dBm at maximum. Do I ever need to take care of the reflections at all?

How can I escape 0.5mm ball grid array pins if the trace spacing and via hole size is not allowed to reduce?

I have a small hobby project in which I want to include the Kingston EMMC04G-M657 eMMC chip. This chip comes in BGA packaging with 0.5mm pitch between balls. I want my board to be cheap, so I’m laying it out for a 4-layer PCB using rigid board design rules of my supplier. I’ve put these rules into KiCAD and it seems to me that there are a few pins that I can neither escape from the BGA with a trace nor disappear with a via. How can I move on?

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