Practical tips for designing two-layer PCBs, covering cost and manufacturing constraints, component placement strategies, power and signal routing, ground plane management, and RF considerations. Key advice includes matching design rules to manufacturer capabilities (6 mil trace/0.3 mm drill for cheap quick-turn), keeping all components on one layer with a solid ground fill on the other, minimizing via jumps that cut the reference plane, and keeping RF traces short relative to the critical length (1/10th wavelength) to avoid impedance matching complexity. Also compares two-layer vs four-layer PCBs in terms of EMI performance, signal integrity, and total cost including engineering time.
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