Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1538269
46 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2025 C O N N ECT T H E D OTS Respect Your Power Supply It's important to deliver the required power to each component on a PCB, but it can be a com- plex design challenge. Failure to manage power properly can cause overheating, short circuits, sig- nal distortion, component malfunction, or even complete board failure. Designers must manage converting AC to DC while also delivering the correct voltage and cur- rent to each component. A well-designed PCB results when the designer takes power supply seri- ously, paying close attention to the effects that power delivery can have on surrounding compo- nents, such as through heat management or signal interference. • Design to maintain power quality and integrity, so power is effectively transferred from the power supply to every component, circuit, and device as expected. Your design needs to ensure that all components are supplied with the appropriate power level to achieve target performance of the entire circuit. • If your board has three or more layers, keep the power and ground planes on one of the internal layers. This will add structure to the board, and it gives easy access to both power and ground from other layers while keeping your PCB design clean. • Separate your ground and power planes to reduce electromagnetic interference while distributing power. Not only will this reduce strange signal patterns, but it can help pre- vent unexpected voltage drops. Don't Let Parts Issues Impact Manufacturability Issues with how parts fit on a board are among the most frequent causes of delay and cost overruns. PCBs with ill-fitting parts have issues with perfor- mance and durability, reducing the overall qual- ity of the board. Here are some methods to avoid problems with parts fit: • Pay attention to the hole sizes for component pins. Check component physical dimensions, take dimension tolerances into consideration, and account for variation that can affect fit. Pins can be the wrong size or have the wrong spacing, and components can be larger than their footprint or land pattern indi- cates. Watch part sizes and pay attention to the minimum, nominal, and maximum mate- rial conditions for the original part. • Watch for holes in the footprint differing from pin size. If hole sizes are too tight, pins may not fit through the holes, or if they do go into the holes, they may not solder well. When designing the land pattern, you can find the pin size and tolerance range for components in the product datasheet. Use that information to plan the proper hole size. • Datasheets can disagree with CAD software. When the datasheet and the library part don't match up, resolve the delta before submitting the design. Check every part in the library against the data sheet before using it for the first time. 4 5