With the continuous emergence of high-speed circuits, the complexity of PCB boards is also getting higher and higher. In order to avoid the interference of electrical factors, the signal plane and the power supply layer must be separated, so it involves the design of multilayer PCB, that is, the design of laminated structure.1. Avoid Direct Connection of Two Signal PlanesIn a multilayer PCB, it usually includes a signal plane (S), a power plane (P) plane and a ground plane (GND). How are the three arranged?Power and ground planes are usually undivided solid planes that provide a good, low-impedance current return path for current from adjacent signal traces. Therefore, the signal plane is mostly adjacent to the power plane or the ground plane. Moreover, the power supply layer and ground plane use a large area of copper (so the power supply layer and ground plane are also called copper layer), and the large copper film can provide shielding for the signal plane, which is conducive to im...

Flexible Printed Circuits – How to Choose the Right Material for Your ApplicationFlexible printed circuit (FPC) technologies have been proven as reliable and effective solutions to dynamic environments. Design circuits is supported by most modern E-CAD tools, but material selection for your FPC application can be a tricky process. In this article we will consider material selection for the FPC substrate, conductor, coverlay, surface finish, and stiffeners.SubstrateThe substrate is the core of a flex circuit stackup. Polyimide (PI) and Polyester (PET) are a fantastic choice for the vast majority of FPC applications as they offer a wide range of cost and performance to meet designers’ needs.In general, PET is a low-cost solution with great tear strength and thickness for most applications but falls short in its temperature rating. Since soldering would melt the material, polyester flex circuits use a conductive epoxy paste which acts like a glue attaching devices to the conductors. The s...

Designing a high-speed PCB can be a rite of passage for many junior-level PCB designers. While intuition and some best practices can make most low-speed PCB’s work just fine, high-speed PCB design relies on impedance control and precise calculations to ensure reliability. The goal of impedance control is to maximize signal power transfer from a driver to receiver, to minimize signal distortion caused by reflections, and to minimize the electromagnetic interference generated by critical signals. The one guiding factor for all things related to impedance control is that as the speed of a signal increases, it starts to behave less and less like a perfect-world model, and more like a transmission line. The burning question in most designers’ heads is, “how important is impedance control in my design?” The answer to which is, as always, it depends. What defines a high-speed signal and when should impedance control be considered? Traditionally, signals ranging from 50MHz to 3GHz can be c...

connecting finger( gold finger ) boards need gold plating or immersion goldI. Immersion Gold VS Gold PlatingImmersion gold adopts the method of chemical deposition. A layer of coating is formed by a chemical redox reaction. Generally, the thickness is thicker. Gold plating uses the principle of electrolysis, also known as electroplating. Most other metal surface treatments are also electroplated. In actual product applications, 90% of gold plates are immersion gold boards, because the poor weldability of gold-plated boards is a fatal shortcoming, and it is also the direct reason why many companies give up the gold-plating process! The immersion gold process deposits a nickel-gold coating with stable color, good brightness, smooth coating, and good solderability on the surface of the printed circuit. Basically, it can be divided into four stages: pre-treatment (oil removal, micro-etching, activation, post-dipping), nick...

1. Power Supply and Circuit RoutingMost of the time digital circuits need discontinuous current, which would generate inrush current. And there must exist parasitic inductance, parasitic resistance, and parasitic capacitor in the high-speed circuit, so eventually, the high-frequency noise would be coupled into other circuits. Because parasitic inductance will decline the maximum inrush current capability that can be withstood, and then cause some parts pressure to drop, and the circuit may be disabled.Therefore, it is particularly important to add bypass capacitors in front of digital devices. The larger the capacitor is, the more energy it transmits is limited by the transmission rate, so a large capacitor and a small capacitor are generally combined to satisfy the full frequency range.Avoid hot spots: Signal vias will create voids on the power plane and bottom layer. Therefore, the unreasonable placement of vias is likely to increase the current density in some areas of the power o...

The PCB design is complicated, and various unexpected factors will affect the achievement of the overall solution. In order to produce high-quality PCB boards on time, without increasing design time or incurring costly rework, design and circuit integrity issues must be identified early in the design process.However, there are many small details in the PCB design process. If some small details are not paid attention to, they may greatly affect the performance of the entire PCB, and even determine the success or failure of the entire product. What other details should we pay attention to in order to maximize design efficiency and product quality?In the actual process of docking with customers, we also summarized some precautions for character, shape and panel design. As a high-reliability multilayer board manufacturer, Huaqiu Electronics focuses on PCB R&D and manufacturing, providing customers with high-reliability and short-term delivery experience.1 Outline design: Detailed design...

PCB design guidelines for AssemblyWhen the term assembly comes in when addressing the printed circuit board process, we are talking about putting together the board skeleton with the necessary components. These components include; heat sinks, resistors, capacitors, transformers, connectors, enclosures, etc. It is this combination action that builds up a full PCB product. The PCB assembly is a very important consideration during the initial design stages of the product to ensure that the process will end with success.Undermining the assembly process during the design stage will end up with the likelihood of troubled assembly. You might think the board is okay through appearance but when assembly time comes, the components might not fit. This can even lead to a product that is non-functional or even with very poor performance.The assembly process is done in two stages namely prototype and production assembly. The two stages have to be considered during the design process.Prototype assemb...

When designing a PCB, one of the most basic issues to consider is how many wiring planes, ground planes, and power planes are needed to achieve the functions required by the circuit, and the number of planes of the printed circuit board wiring planes, ground planes and power planes is determined. All these are related to circuit function, signal integrity, EMI, EMC, manufacturing cost, etc. requirements.For most designs, there are many conflicting requirements for PCB performance requirements, target cost, manufacturing technology, and system complexity. The PCB stack-up design is usually a compromise decision after considering various factors. High-speed digital circuits and whisker circuits are often designed with multilayer boards.Here are 8 rules you should notice when designing PCB stack up.1. PCB signal, power, and ground planeThere is a signal plane, power plane, and ground plane in multiple-layers PCBs. The power plane and ground plane usually have no split solid plane, and the...

Electronic circuit boards have gained momentum in terms of materials used in fabrication. The types of PCBs in the market are backed up by various high-performing buildup materials. In this article, we are going to focus on flexible printed circuit boards and the material used to build their structures.A flexible printed circuit board is a PCB that is made up of a flexible insulating substrate. They are boards that are accompanied ban excellent electrical performance together with high assembly density characteristics, minimal thickness, and lightweight. They have found great applications in the area of digital cameras, mobile phones, LCM, aerospace products, and mobile phones. The flexible PCB by PCBgogoThe flexible circuit board’s materials PIThis material is mostly used as a cover and base film. It ...

Some customers would be curious when ordering: why the layers option are all even numbers, why cant they be odd numbers?For this question, I guess many guys have searched it from Google, just like me. To be honest, some answerers from Google aren’t rather professional in PCB this field. Theoretically, as long as it is within the process capability, no matter what PCB design layer is even number or odd, manufacturers could process them all. But, online or offline, unless you paid a great deal amount of money to let manufacturers handle orders of odd-numbered layer PCBs. Otherwise, they wont consider those orders. Why? It’s pretty complicated to explain this. The core issues are mainly: Cost, time, and quality.CostFirstly, on the basis of nuclear structure technology, the odd-numbered PCBs also need the non-standard laminated core layer bonding process. Therefore, the cost of it is much higher than even-numbered layer PCBs.Moreover, for many brokers, the design of even-numbered layers ...