M.2 System-on-Module Hardware Design - Phil's Lab

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching! The new advanced hardware design course is out - you can check out the content here: www.phils-lab.net/courses

[@dr.med.janschiefer7163]

Your PCB design videos are always the best you can find on KZbin!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Jan!

[@tylergeneharrison3594]

Dude, you keep me excited about engineering! Wicked cool design mate!

[@PhilsLab]

That's great to hear - thank you, Tyler!

[@rallymax2]

Another excellent, educational, enjoyable, elegantly enlightening tutorial Phil. The SWD stub termination by placing the resistors at the tag-connect was inspired.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for your kind comment!

[@mbeechey]

Brilliant, thanks Phil. Love your videos - as someone who doesn't have an EE academic background (ML/network security), but found myself in a job whereby I am required to take on such responsibilities, your videos are a massive help. Looking forward to checking out your new course.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Matt - I'm very glad to hear that the videos have been helpful! I hope you like the course and all the best for your job :)

[@Ru21Ben]

Hey man. Thanks for teaching me about the ground return vias, never would have thought about that.. seems as if our current pcb prototype needs a second one. 😅

[@pietrogagliano4484]

Awesome video Phil! It's always been a fascination of mine to begin exploring the utilization of m.2 form factors! As with your other topical videos the m.2 form factor videos certainly give a foundational understanding of these interfaces!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Pietro - I agree M.2 is such a cool form factor!

[@CuriousMaker609]

Great video. I didn't know that M.2 form factor had standard dimensions.

[@damny0utoobe]

Why wouldn't it? It is a standard right?

[@mikeselectricstuff]

I you had any MCU pins not routed to the M2 connector, it might have been useful to stick a couple of LEDs on the board. Maybe also some accessible test pads for debug outputs.

[@danedwards_ee]

Great idea using a microcontroller! I'm currently using the rPi CM4 as a system on module and designing my own custom carrier board.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Daniel! Sounds like an awesome project - good luck with your design!

[@exciton007]

The little brain is a very good idea! Thanks for the video❤

[@Archnemesis88]

Another video that is absolute gold! I love these videos that break down the schematic and layout all at once, helps with thinking about the big picture when it comes to design

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Michael!

[@gsuberland]

I've been thinking about building an ESP32 SoM with some standard "I use these in every design" parts for a while. The NodeMCU / DOIT style boards are by far the most cost effective approach, with a whole board (ESP32 module, CP2102 or similar, AMS1117, USB connector, LEDs, etc.) typically costing less than just the ESP32-WROOM module would at qty50 from JLC, but the TH pin header connectivity isn't great for compact designs and the power delivery side of it leaves a lot to be desired.

[@vigneshperiyasamy3019]

What a workmanship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Vignesh!

[@TechnopolisDotTV]

11:25 and 15:18 you mentioned CAN 🤩 I can't wait for it!

[@TehFreek]

This is probably overkill for something intended for internal use only, but offsetting the edge screw cut-out would probably be an effective reminder/indicator that this doesn't use a standard M.2 pinout without affecting the ability to use a standard M.2 connector in any way.

[@qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq7]

I would recommend using a little bit longer power input pins at card edge connection so the power is delivered first. Otherwise great video as usual :)

[@rolfdieterklein]

cool idea to use the M2 form factor. Gets me an idea for our new modular space transceivers (currently in space move 2 ) , currently we used a solder on system with edge solders to have a modular system - I have to check the form factor , but the connectors are really great. Hope they can be used in space, might have to make some vaccum and shake tests...

[@marek_ryn]

Nice idea :) I would only add separate Vbat connection on M.2 connector. Especially that you decided to install 32,768 kHz quartz on your board. This would give you possibility to design carrier boards with battery backup and use full potential of integrated RTC peripheral and MCU backup domain.

[@robv3872]

Such a great channel - now I want to design a zynq M.2 module!

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Rob!

[@DonMuffatello]

Still blows my mind that they don't teach board design at uni in EE. I mean what else are EEs meant to even do

[@thewld2]

EE graduates are entry level placeholders. Only true enthusiast keep elevating in knowledge and positions in the industry.

[@adrianramos2229]

Lots of more things. Microelectronics (Analog, Digital, RF...) Semiconductor Device manufacturing, Control engineering, HDL, Embedded systems programming...

[@pawanv86]

Fantastic video Phil! I was just thinking about AIO Drone FCs. It's crazy to even imagine that manufacturers build PCBs capable of handling close to 140A burst in a 30.5x30.5mm form factor while having sensitive equipment such as the ARM chip on the same little square

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! Yeah, there are some pretty amazing, tiny PCBs out there!

[@vibram500]

Awesome project. I hope you will show a module with Human machine interface. This would be awesome

[@kalimist4217]

one more amazing stuff, i fell in love with your scientific drawing-designing perspectivity. ill be honest, i totally cloned that skillsets, acting kind, perspective from you and almost totally that channel.. i totally cloned, steal, i hope that wont turns me a idea thief, but if it, i dont care thats really feels good when my stuffs starting appear. thats because of your channel:)... Cong. and really thankfull to you because of bringing that lesson kind stuffs to us. Appreciated. the best thing i did in my life is joining that channel and knowing u and ur stuffs. Endless Thanks to you again.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much! :)

[@Bearded-northern-guy]

i'm actually doing something similar now, just that the main brain, that mostly will stay the same, will be the backplane/motherboard and then the Module is the one that will change depending on the need. actually the base motherboard i'm currently designing will have 3 module spaces that all should be able to talk to each other :D those modules then add either processing power or some sort of IO. the software side of that will be fun too :P though this motherboard will be not so generic as the SoM from the video. but definitely learned something here that will help me in those Designs ^^

[@PeopleAndroid]

Thanks Phill for the videos. Have you considered to write a book about hardware and PCB design, like a student guide/ textbook or something like that?

[@PeopleAndroid]

It would also be cool to see the SOM working or kinda of projects with it.

[@PeetHobby]

A Dev board with a fancy connector. 😁 I like the form factor you choose, perfect for the job. The only draw side is the relatively high cost of the m.2 connectors. Well, since you use an MCU for a mere 12 bucks, I don't think a $2 connector will be a big deal.😋

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks! Haha yeah, the MCU + RAM does outweigh the connector cost by quite a bit.. I do love the look of the M.2 form factor boards as well though.

[@MHBGT]

I really like the concept of the Tagconnect system, but the availability of the actualy mating connector was a huge issue so we reverted to a Molex PicoLock edge connector for programming.

[@sarbog1]

Very cool....... plan to look into this for model railroad control via DCC. DCC-EX is releasing version 5.0 of command station which will work with STM32F4... Imagine ...design my own mother board and just plugin the STM32F4 module. Using my own mother board I can expand my layout very easily and cheaper than buying proprietary expensive products.

[@prashkd7684]

Phil you should sell the final version of this board as dev board. I'm planning to start a HMI project and would rather use this board as module on my main PCB than starting something like this from scratch.

[@imabeapirate]

Sparkfun does this with their MicroMod line. is your design compattible?

[@PhilsLab]

I'm afraid it isn't compatible with the Sparkfun stuff, as I'm just doing this as a personal project.

[@irukard]

Sparkfun MicroMod... Inventend once again :D

[@bakedbeings]

Something like this (with usb c and a mounting screw) could be sweet for custom mechanical pcbs, versus using a pro micro or teensy. Slot in, add screw, flash via bootloader over usb (with qmk). A radio and lipo support wouldnt hurt either 😊

[@tinnoc]

First time watching your channel, subscribed! Interesting that you didn't route PA4 & PA5 that are generally where ST places their DAC outputs. I was looking for inspiration for doing my own SOM as most commercially available ones are from the STM32MP1 series. I will do mine with the M.2 connector as well that is great idea, wasn't aware that the connectors where so inexpensive. Thanks!

[@TheShorterboy]

LOL what you can still buy a 446??? Sweet project. You should use a high socket so you can route under the module and use smaller boards.

[@Biomancer81]

I have been contemplating something like this for a long time. A SoM in the M.2 formfactor.

[@PhilsLab]

Awesome, hope you give it a try soon :)

[@Biomancer81]

@@PhilsLab Im not skilled enough to do it yet, but M.2 seemed an ideal form for SoM exactly as you did it. I love watching your videos.

[@jakubvanek5723]

Perfect video Phil!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Jakub!

[@vibram500]

Do you plan to publish this on Git?

[@Pedal_Lab]

Very interesting project, regarding the carrier board, do you have any idea of how the manufacturers do the threads on the motherboard in order to hold the m.2 stand off? im doing something similar for some audio stuff but couldnt find the answers for how to do the threads on the board, According to chat GPT the threads are done directly to the motherboard material, is that correct? Looking forward for the follow up video Thanks

[@kamaldeen4738]

Philip, am using your stm32h7 flight controller for agricultural spraying drone as my project, is it enough to use those sensors you used on the schematic? If not, list the needed sensors and where to connect them please. I really love your work Philip. Big Man

[@andymouse]

Fascinating, I think it's a great idea ! a sort of grown up Arduino on steroids, I shall enjoy what's to come.....cheers.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks a lot, Andy!

[@isaacclark9825]

Great content as always. I am inspired to do my own SOM with some BGA parts on it! As I understand it, you didn't need to do any length matching or impedance control for the SDRAM interface? Interesting.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Isaac! Delay tuning only 'within reason'. Typically, as a rough rule, I aim for within 2.5% of the clock period. Impedance control is preferable given the rise times, however, for this design not entirely necessary given the length scales.

[@MikeHarris1984]

I am extreamly interested in doing this for my projects. It gives me sort of an upgrade path and expantion capabilities where I can have a lower powered Microproccessor board for smaller projects and then have a higher powered one for bigger ones. Or design a board with a breakout connector for future expantion feeding some UART and power lines over the connector, so in the future, when I built another module, I just plug it into it and have another dedicated esp32soc/stm32/atmega2560 or something to feed those breakouts and communicate back over UART... so influding this in my design makes it so adding capabilities is alot of just update code and plug in. My question is, is there an already designed PCB end with the M.2 Key and eveyrhing, or do I have to painstakingly design and hope I got it right in EasyEDA? I would love to test Altium, but 2k a year is way out of my price range for a hobbyest.

[@T.Lspitz]

Im extremely curious about printing my own m.2 nvme pcb blanks and ordering the nand flash chips and memory controllers myself. Would you be willing to do a video on something like that and if its possible??

[@elektronikprojeniyap]

Thanks for affort dude, I have a one question. Why you dont use microvias on STM32F4 components in own components library? Can you put to microvias on stm32f4 pins pad? Sorry about my english. I hope you can understand my question

[@danedwards_ee]

A point on the BGA fanning out. How do you deal with the change of reference plane vias? or does it not make that much of a difference if the stitching via is a bit further away? You can see some of the groupings don't (relatively) have transfer vias too close. Would this be something a blind via would help with? Doh! You mentioned it later. but still is there a distance that would be considered too "far"?

[@jeremyglover5541]

Thanks Phil!! Thanks very much for this great video mate. its funny. I'm working on a high quality integrated audio DSP system at the moment, with multichannel DAC, ADC, DSP, Class D poweramp, along with all the required control and peripheral ie embedded MCU and CPU. I had designed in M.2 connectors for testing different combinations in IV stage/power supply and interface, for the prototyping phase, before deciding on final config and building all on one board. I ended up canning the idea as springing for hard gold on everything increased the manufacturing cost substantially. Do you think its ok to use standard ENIG if its just for prototyping? As it stands i'm using 6 layer ENIG with 2oz outer/1oz inner (panelized and I need this for some power and high current; I know its not ideal for plane cap) and smallest and epoxy filled via in pad (complimentary with advanced PCBs at JLPCB now) so everything else is sorted, just worried about ENIG vs hard gold. The most important one I would still like to use itr for if possible is the XMOS and MCU board, with 2 way i2s. I would much prefer to put this on a module for other projects and its a far nicer interface vs a stacking header or even FPC cable/connector. and I can just put it right at the edge, it doesnt have to be an 'edge connector' (castellated) capability, right? this feature again makes PCBs increase 200-300%. At that time I costed it I was only using 4 layer and not via in pad, but as this capability has gotten cheaper and my design more complex; I increased to 6 layer with via in pad and ENIG, but adding hard gold is a bridge too far and i'll just go without if thats required.

[@alfredomorales9559]

Any thoughts on sharing the design so we can use this SoM ?

[@mohammad.htarokh2891]

Were can you find the pcb layout for m.2 boards?

[@hanfman1951]

"very simple design" hm really cool but I don't see it as that simple but you doing a great job :O I would say maybe somewhat simple.

[@km-electronics1]

Very cool project and idea, I think it would be the perfect project for a Kicad 7 tutorial. Out of curiosity, why did you go with M.2 connector instead of, for example, Raspberry Pi CM4 connectors and do you plan to become an OEM?

[@jamegumb7298]

Audio processing? Could it be used for say connecting to pc through usb and use as a soundcard/dac? surround sound for example?

[@PhilsLab]

Yeah, that's right! Just need to create a carrier board with suitable circuitry (USB connector, audio CODEC, power supplies, analogue front-ends, ...).

[@CallistoPili]

beautiful design. I use Altium at workplace and it is very efficient for high speed stuff, but also I use KiCAD for my personal stuff. This M.2 design is beautiful I know sounds too much but do you have any plan in the future to show new videos about KiCAD specifically with high speed design? thx.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much! I do have a long-form tutorial planned in the near future using KiCad.

[@cvspvr]

how long did it take you to make this?

[@villadelfia]

Is there any particular reason you chose to forgo using pin 36 of the m.2 connector?

[@ViniciusMiguel1988]

Thanks Phil

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching!

[@theonlyari]

Did you have to specify anything extra in your fab drawing for the edge connector?

[@PhilsLab]

I typically make a manufacturing drawing highlying the area of the edge connector, as well as directly contacting the manufacturer about it as well.

[@sriyugenther2227]

Hi sir , pls upload the bideo for that carrier board with m.2 slot so that i cam learn more about that pcb too. Thank you

[@shivanshuraj7175]

Sd ram is word addressed or byte addressed?

[@bharatraj32]

What is the application for 32MB SDRAM? Why do you need such huge RAM memory?

[@SiggyPony]

Very neat :) I need to learn to work the STM32 micro's. I have dev boards but never really got past the basics. Always stuck with Atmel :/

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks! I have a few videos on hardware & firmware for STM32 MCUs on my channel - those should be useful for getting started I hope.

[@isaacclark9825]

Warning. Working with cortex M4 and M7 MCUs can take over your life. When you notice yourself telling folks to buy you test equipment for Christmas, you'll know you've gone too far.

[@RonakSakaria-y8s]

How much current/power per pin M.2 supports ?

[@EchONailer]

Hi Phil, I was wondering if there is an alternative of the dog bone vias in this design. Is it possible to have a via that is place directly under the BGA pad that has a flat top for the ball to solder too? Great video apologies for the probably, stupid question.

[@PhilsLab]

Hi Henry, Yes, that is possible (via-in-pad) but typically quite a bit more expensive. Only really should be done if absolutely needed (high-density, signal integrity reasons, etc...

[@BHSAHFAD]

What is the purpose of the R2 resistor? Is it to prevent the clock signal from floating? Also why put series termination resistor on X2, but not X1? Also, how do you choose the resistance value of a series termination resistor (is 22ohm just a good rule of thumb)?

[@michaelcummings7246]

If I'm remembering right R2 will have to do with power on setup of the MCU and/or the memory config but I would expect he'll cover that in more detail in the next video. The 22ohm resistors are there to prevent ringing on the CLK lines. Didn't use them on the data or address lines because of the relatively slow speed but the CLK are more sensitive so used them there. There is a reason for the value but don't remember the details just know you see it in many different designs not only by him. Might look at some of his past videos where he goes over high speed bus termination. Stuff to do with the crystals really depends on the ones used and what the MCU requires. The low speed one will typically be much less critical as it is just use for the Real Time Clock vs other which will be critical as it is used by the MCU for main clock and effects the setting for bus timing etc.

[@nicholasmistry4954]

Can you share how you split the STM32 in the schematic into A/B/C sub-components?

[@PhilsLab]

In the schematic symbol editor, when creating a component, go to 'Tools', then 'New Part'.

[@ClaytonwFirth]

Did you need as many ground connections as you have on the M.2.. could you have used more pins from the MCU instead?

[@ClaytonwFirth]

Ok. I should have watched the entire video before asking this question. Sorry.

[@PhilsLab]

It's not entirely necessary and you can get away with a lot less. It depends on signal bandwidth and EMI concerns. For a simple 'personal devboard' at these speeds, less would definitely suffice.

[@xmenxwk]

29:00 doesn't understand why its highly recommended ? Why microcontroller itself doesn't do it as well ?

[@tairegaming5464]

Would you perhaps consider selling these,they are s nice package

[@PseudonymQR]

Great work as usual Phil. Thumbs up. I had a question I've been meaning to ask you from since a couple of your previous videos. How you're able to override a layer color in layout? I used to do it in schematic part but that would only override partially with boxes of layer color+override color. Hopefully I'm able to get my query across. Thanks

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Muhammad. There are additional settings you need adjust in the PCB editor, which will change how colours are displayed. Altium has a few docs on how to do that.

[@PseudonymQR]

@@PhilsLab I searched for 'net overrides' in the preferences section that lead me to the solution. Thanks for your help also ❤️‍🩹

[@rdson1621]

Just wondering, are you living in Germany?! Also wondering, are you running your own business or are you an employee?

[@PhilsLab]

Yep, I live in Heidelberg, Germany. And I'm running my own business :)

[@rdson1621]

@@PhilsLab Awesome, you made it. That would also be a very interesting video, business owner and what goes along with, the path it takes... I tried too but I failed. Cheers from Basel, roughly 250km southern :-)

[@tamaseduard5145]

👍🙏❤

[@hengzhou4566]

Don't quite understand the term "System-on-Module". You can call every PCB a module, then is every PCB with a processor a "System-on-Module"?