Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1140547
36 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2019 niques on printed boards (Figure 1). Areas of conversation included: • Keeping only one ground plane • Splitting planes but keeping them connected at a single point • Pouring with ground the signal layer as ground guards • Keeping separated ground potentials At the end of the meeting, the conclusion from the open technical discussion was that there is no recipe that fits for all of the product diversity that people work on. For a graphics con- troller, 10-layer, mid-pow- er board design rules and considerations cannot be followed on a double-layer, high-power board design for industrial applications. The only recommenda- tions agreed upon by ev- eryone were to keep the loop between power and its return as small as your layout allows and avoid crossing loops, referring to a wide range of design op- tions. But considering the diverse audience, it was very interesting to hear where they had designs flaw on EMC/EMI and what the en- gineers did to correct those flaws. You can't apply the same specific rules to different ap- plication and technology designs. The magic relies on identifying the aggressive and sensi- tive loops, and if simulation or testing shows a flaw, understanding the root cause of it. This is not an easy task for printed board engineers. If you want to contact me, email luis.sara- cho@gmail.com. Learn more about their chap- ter here. Figure 1: Technical discussion on power grounding. Figure 2: May 2019 Monterrey Chapter meeting.