Introduction
You've designed your circuit, perhaps even breadboarded a working prototype, and now it's time to turn it into a nice Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design. For some designers, the PCB design will be a natural and easy extension of the design process. But for many others the process of designing and laying-out a PCB can be a very daunting task. There are even very experienced circuit designers who know very little about PCB design, and as such leave it up to the "expert" specialist PCB designers. Many companies even have their own dedicated PCB design departments. This is not surprising, considering that it often takes a great deal of knowledge and talent to position hundreds of components and thousands of tracks into an intricate (some say artistic) design that meets a whole host of physical and electrical requirements. Proper PCB design is very often an integral part of a design. In many designs (high speed digital, low level analog and RF to name a few) the PCB layout may make or break the operation and electrical performance of the design. It must be remembered that PCB traces have resistance, inductance, and capacitance, just like your circuit does. This article is presented to hopefully take some of the mystery out of PCB design. It gives some advice and “rules of thumb” on how to design and lay out your PCBs in a professional manner. It is, however, quite difficult to try and “teach” PCB design. There are many basic rules and good practices to follow, but apart from that PCB design is a highly creative and individual process. It is like trying to teach someone how to paint a picture. Everyone will have their own unique style, while some people may have no creative flair at all! Indeed, many PCB designers like to think of PCB layouts as works of art, to be admired for their beauty and elegance. “If it looks good, it’ll work good.” is an old catch phrase.
Lets have a go shall we...
PCB Design Tutorial (click here to download the PDF)
This PDF covers the following....
Introduction
PCB Packages
Standards
The Schematic
Imperial and Metric
Working to Grids
Working from the top
Tracks
Pads
Vias
Polygons
Clearances
Component Placement & Design
Basic Routing
Finishing Touches
Single Sided Design
Double Sided Design
Other Layers
Silkscreen
Solder Mask
Mechanical Layer
Keepout
Layer Alignment
Netlists
Rats Nest
Design Rule Checking
Forward and Back Annotation
Multi layer Design
Power Planes
Good Grounding
Good Bypassing
High Frequency Design Techniques
Double Sided Loading
Auto Routing
Auto Placement
Design For Manufacturing
Panelization
Tooling Strips
Fiducial Marks
Thermal Relief
Soldering
Basic PCB Manufacture
Surface Finishies
Electrical Testing
Signature
Submitting your design for manufacture