How many of the ten golden rules of PCB design do you know?

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How many of the ten golden rules of PCB design do you know? [Copy link]

How many of the ten golden rules of PCB design do you know?

Despite the increasing integration of semiconductors, the availability of readily available systems-on-chips for many applications, and the increasing availability of powerful, ready-to-use development boards, many use cases still require the use of custom PCBs for electronic products. Even a regular PCB can play a very important role in one-time development. The PCB is the physical platform for design and the most flexible part of the electronic system design for raw components. This article will introduce several golden rules of PCB design that have remained largely unchanged since the birth of commercial PCB design decades ago and are widely applicable to various PCB design projects, whether for young electronic design engineers or more mature board manufacturers. The

following content of this article introduces the ten most effective design rules that electronic design engineers should keep in mind and practice when using design software for PCB layout design and commercial manufacturing. Engineers do not need to follow these rules in chronological order or relative importance, just following them all can greatly change product designs.

Rule 1: Choose the right grid - Set and always use the grid spacing that can match the most components. Although multiple grids seem to be obvious, engineers can avoid difficulties in spacing settings and maximize the use of circuit boards if they think more about it at the beginning of PCB layout design. Since many devices are available in multiple package sizes, engineers should use the products that are most beneficial to their designs. In addition, polygons are critical to board copper pouring. Multi-grid boards generally produce polygon filling deviations when pouring polygons. Although not as standard as those based on a single grid, they can provide a longer board life than required.

Rule 2: Keep the path short and direct. This sounds simple and common, but it should be kept in mind at every stage, even if it means changing the board layout to optimize the wiring length. This is especially applicable to analog and high-speed digital circuits where system performance is always partially limited by impedance and parasitic effects.

Rule 3: Use power planes to manage the distribution of power and ground lines as much as possible. Power plane copper pouring is a faster and simpler option for most PCB design software. By connecting a large number of wires in common, it can ensure that the current is provided with the highest efficiency and the least impedance or voltage drop, while providing sufficient ground return paths. If possible, you can also run multiple power lines in the same area of the board to confirm whether the ground plane covers most of the level of a layer of the PCB, which is conducive to the interaction between lines running on adjacent layers.

Rule 4: Group related components together with the required test points. For example, placing discrete components required for an OpAmp close to the device so that bypass capacitors and resistors can be co-located with it helps optimize the trace lengths mentioned in Rule 2, while also making testing and troubleshooting easier.

Rule 5: Repeat the required board multiple times on another larger board. Choosing the size that best suits the equipment used by the manufacturer can help reduce prototyping and manufacturing costs. First lay out the board on a panel, contact the board manufacturer to get their preferred size specifications for each panel, then modify your design specifications and try to repeat your design multiple times within these panel sizes.

Rule 6: Consolidate component values. As a designer, you will choose discrete components with higher or lower component values that perform the same. By consolidating within a smaller range of standard values, you can simplify the bill of materials and potentially reduce costs. If you have a series of PCB products based on preferred component values, you will be more likely to make the right inventory management decisions in the long run.

Rule 7: Perform as many design rule checks (DRCs) as possible. Although it only takes a short time to run the DRC function on your PCB software, in a more complex design environment, you can save a lot of time as long as you always perform checks during the design process, which is a good habit worth maintaining. Every routing decision is critical, and performing DRC can remind you of the most important routing at any time.

Rule 8: Use silkscreen flexibly. Silkscreen can be used to mark a variety of useful information for future use by circuit board manufacturers, service or test engineers, installers or equipment commissioning personnel. Not only should clear function and test point labels be marked, but the orientation of components and connectors should be marked as much as possible, even if these notes are printed on the lower surface of the components used on the circuit board (after the circuit board is assembled). Full use of silkscreen technology on the upper and lower surfaces of the circuit board can reduce duplication and streamline the production process.

Rule 9: Decoupling capacitors are required. Don't try to optimize your design by avoiding decoupling power lines and relying on the extreme values in the component datasheet. Capacitors are inexpensive and durable, and you can spend as much time as possible assembling capacitors, while following Rule 6 and using standard value ranges to keep inventory neat.

Rule 10: Generate PCB manufacturing parameters and verify them before submitting them for production. While most board manufacturers will be happy to download and verify directly for you, it is best to export the Gerber files yourself and use a free viewer to check that they are what you expected to avoid misunderstandings. By verifying it yourself, you may even find some careless errors and avoid the cost of completing production according to incorrect parameters.

As circuit designs are shared more and more widely and internal teams rely more and more on reference designs, basic rules like the above will continue to be a feature of printed circuit board design, and we believe it is very important for PCB design. With these basic rules clarified, developers have great flexibility to increase the value of their products and get the most from the boards they manufacture. Even for novice board designers, just keeping these basic rules in mind can speed up the learning process and increase confidence.

秦天qintian0303

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wmsk

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一叶知秋霜

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lkh747566933

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