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Roast my board
170 1 Jun 27.2019, 17:29:20

So this is my very first stab at laying out a PCB, in KiCad. Decided to do something small which might possibly be useful to me. It's a two-channel active low-pass board, for ADC buffering and similar. Went with 0802 so I could easily hand-solder.

So, since I have no idea what I'm doing, what's the verdict?

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A****min

Jul 02.2019, 17:56:32

Use power nodes rather than global labels for GND, Vcc.  (That's the P key in KiCad.)
It looks like you only connect Vcc to two points.  I'd pour GND on both sides and stitch them, then run a 30 mil trace along the PCB perimeter for Vcc.  You can also swap GND,Vcc on the connector to bring Vcc closer to the bottom edge. Since the op amp supply is decoupled it doesn't benefit as much as GND from being poured - the shortest high frequency impedance will be to the decoupling cap(s).  Do try to place the cap(s) along the supply trace however.
The traces on the bottom can be run on the top separated by ground pour so you don't have two traces running the same direction on top of one another. This would give you a solid GND bottom side.  Instead of crossing signals, swap their positions on the connector since you're at liberty to do so.
Further optimizations (that are easily quantifiable): reduce overall trace length.  This might be possible for example by moving the connector to a different edge.  Reduce the number of segments (shown at the bottom in KiCad).  Do a "Cleanup tracks and vias" (under the Edit menu) to consolidate small bits and pieces and remove redundant editing artifacts (it happens), and see how many segments you have.  Then try to reduce the number of bends to reduce the number of segments; while not hugely important in itself, this is a good habit since on more complex boards it often reveals simplifications that might not be immediately obvious.  Just a good habit, and one that's easy to pursue "by the numbers."

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