Multi-Layer PCBs & Layer Stackup

Browse our library of resources to learn more about multi-layer PCB design & layer stackup

1 oz copper weight

Do You Always Need 1 oz. Copper Thickness on Each Layer? 1 oz. copper thickness is often seen as a standard thickness value used in many designs. Here’s when you might need thicker copper on every layer. Read Article

2-layer PCB Routing

Can You Route Digital Signals on a 2-layer PCB? 2-layer PCBs are a common entry-level choice for designers, and they can even support high speed designs if built correctly. Read Article

4 Layer PCB Stackup

Two Alternative 4 Layer PCB Stackups With 50 Ohms Impedance Need a 4-layer PCB stackup that can support high speed components on both sides of the board? Consider these alternatives to the typical 4-layer stackup. Read Article

microstrip to ground clearance

Microstrip Ground Clearance Part 2: How Clearance Affects Losses In a previous article, I provided a discussion and some simulation results on the necessary clearance between impedance controlled traces and nearby grounded copper pour. What we found was that, once the spacing between the pour and the trace becomes too small, the trace becomes an impedance-controlled coplanar waveguide (with or without ground). We also saw that the 3W rule for the spacing between the trace and the grounded copper pour is a bit Read Article

Star ground PCB

What is PCB Star Grounding and Why Would Anyone Use It? PCB star grounding can encourage bad design practices that lead to radiated EMI emissions in your PCB layout. Read Article

PCB copper thickness

What PCB Copper Thickness Should You Use? Do you know what PCB copper thickness you should use in your circuit board? Learn more about copper thickness and what it means for your fabrication process in this guide. Read Article

4-layer stackup 50 Ohms

Designing a 4 Layer PCB Stackup With 50 Ohm Impedance Your 4-layer PCB stackup with 50 Ohm impedance will constrain your trace width to sit within a specific range of values. Read Article

Best DC Laboratory Bench Power Supplies of 2021

Best DC Laboratory Bench Power Supplies of 2021 A guide to power supplies, related requirements, technological tradeoffs, and recommended brands and models. Read Article

Solder Bridge Jumper Best Practices in PCB Design

Solder Bridge Jumper Best Practices in PCB Design A PCB variant is often simply thought of as a new layout created from an old design. However, if you’re creative with your routing and layout, you can use a solder bridge jumper to configure portions of a single PCB layout for multiple variants. This lets you quickly create variants of a PCB layout without rerouting traces or changing your schematics. If you plan to use jumpers in your PCB layout, there are some important guidelines to follow to Read Article

Should You Use Your PCB Power Plane as a Return Path?

Should You Use Your PCB Power Plane as a Return Path? Power planes and ground planes are important for more than just distribution of supplying power. When defining reference planes, both with impedance controlled routing and in managing return paths, your stackup might force return currents to pass into a PCB power plane before being coupled back to a ground layer. Even though you define a GND reference layer as a the basis for your impedance-controlled trace width, you still have to define a clear Read Article

Follow Your Multilayer Ground Return Path to Prevent EMI

Follow Your Multilayer Ground Return Path to Prevent EMI Make sure none of these traces crosses a ground plane gap Following the path back to ground can quickly become complex in a complicated multilayer PCB. When your PCB has a small layer count (e.g., a 4-layer board with two plane layers), it becomes rather easy to determine the return path and deliberately design it to prevent EMI. The situation becomes more complicated when you’re working with higher layer counts. Multiple plane layers and Read Article

50:25 Altium Designer 19 Key Features We are pleased to announce the release of Altium Designer 19.0! An exciting new era of Altium Designer is here Watch Video

Select the Right Microvia Aspect Ratio in Your HDI PCB

Select the Right Microvia Aspect Ratio in Your HDI PCB If you’re not familiar with PCB design or electronics in general, you probably wonder how newer electronics can pack so much functionality into progressively smaller devices. It takes more than just Moore’s Law, it takes creative PCB design methods to pack all that functionality into a single device. This gave birth to HDI design for densely packed circuit boards and small electronics, like smartphones and small form factor embedded systems. Vias Read Article

How Does Dispersion in FR4 Really Affect Propagation Delay?

How Does Dispersion in FR4 Really Affect Propagation Delay? Your FR4 substrate may be more important than you think. Learn more about FR4 material and high-speed PCB design issues in this article. Read Article

Electric Vehicles: PCB Designers Mitigate Heat Using Glass-Reinforced PTFE

Electric Vehicles: PCB Designers Mitigate Heat Using Glass-Reinforced PTFE In the demanding world of electric vehicles, PCB’s must provide power conditioning, voltage conversion, and battery management in addition to their usual roles in the automotive context. Unfortunately, these same PCB’s must cope with stringent thermal requirements without heat sinks or fans. PCB designers, however, have found a lasting solution. Board substrate materials with high thermal performance allow PCB’s to avoid or minimize their use of Read Article