PCB Basics: How WIDE Should Traces Be? (IPC-2221 Circuit Design Specs)

This video is sponsored by PCBWay! Head to www.pcbway.com to order custom circuit boards for all of your project needs!
I'm currently designing an open source actuator that will make it easier for people to get started with robotics. After designing a PCB for this project, I excitedly posted it online and was repeatedly told that I had committed an unforgivable electronics sin -- MY CIRCUIT BOARD TRACES WERE TOO THIN! This feedback made me wonder -- how do you properly size circuit board traces? With some help from circuit boards from PCBWay and a thermal imaging camera from Banggood.com, I set out to answer this question once and for all so that future boards would not accidentally catch on fire!
Interested in picking up the thermal camera in this video for your own prototyping needs? Get it here and use code "BGherra" to get $30 off your order: ban.ggood.vip/XT3j
Special thanks to Altium for supporting my videos with their "Altium Designer" software. Check out the following link for a 30 day free trial: www.altium.com/yt/supermakeso...
Do you enjoy content like this? Consider supporting me through one of the links below to make sure that this type of educational content can always remain free for anyone looking to learn about 3D printing, electronics, robotics, and more!
Become a Patron: / supermakesomething
Become a Channel Member on KZbin: Click the button under the video!
Buy Me a Coffee:
Follow me on my other social media accounts to keep up with the latest between video uploads:
Twitter: / supermakesmthng
Instagram: / supermakesomething
Facebook: / supermakesomething
Twitch: / supermakesomething
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:48 Joule Heating: It's Getting Hot in Herre...
2:49 How Wide Should a PCB Trace Be?
3:51 Time to Make Some Printed Circuit Boards!
5:00 Testing IPC-2221 Trace Width Accuracy
6:50 What Exactly Does This Result Mean?
9:04 Outro
SOURCES:"Dikembe Mutombo Blocks Your Shot - GEICO Insurance" - GEICO Insurance ( • Video )
"FR-4 Moisture & Temperature Resistance" - WizardTime ( • FR-4 Moisture & Temper... )
"Speed of Electrons - What's a Resistor (ElectroBOOM101-004)" - ElectroBOOM ( • Speed of Electrons - W... )
#PCBDesign #IPC2221 #ElectricalEngineering

[@HayashiKaiji]

Custom PCB, or just electronics in general, is one of those things I wish I could do, but it looks too hard to do lol.

[@SuperMakeSomething]

No time to get started like the present! When I was first getting into electronics, I bought an "Inventor's Kit" from SparkFun, which had basic lessons and all of the components needed to do things like make an LED blink, spin a motor, etc. Definitely worth checking out if that is something you are interested in -- knowing how to make your own PCBs and work with electronics is a great skill to have! :)

[@HayashiKaiji]

@@SuperMakeSomething Wow the kit definitely looks interesting. I'll make sure to bookmark it and consider getting it myself too in the future.

[@hosseinpirhady8045]

Very informative my friend. Thank you.

[@SuperMakeSomething]

Thank you! I’m glad you found the video helpful!

[@mostafagaberahmed6657]

Thank you.

[@SuperMakeSomething]

You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@RoterFruchtZwerg]

Great Video! But I think your traces should still be wider ;) As you've seen yourself, your PCB was meant to deliver up to 2A but it was only able to deliver 1.5A at the specified voltage of 12V and the designed load due to the resistance of the tracks. That's a significant loss. So your tracks should actually be wider to meet your specification within an acceptable tolerance.

[@SuperMakeSomething]

Thanks! Haha yes it is true - increasing the width would decrease the resistance of the traces. Space around the connectors was getting a bit tight, so I’m not sure if this increase would have made a meaningful difference for the layout I ended up with. 😅 I think moving everything “high current” in close proximity to each other to decrease the trace length as much as possible would be the way to go for the next revision. For these boards I think I may just crank the voltage up, since the stepper drivers can handle up to 36 V and the traces have some thermal margin. 😜

[@RoterFruchtZwerg]

@@SuperMakeSomething make them bigger where you can and leave them as they are around the connectors. wide traces, even only at a short segment, reduce the resistance. you could also expose them (remove solder mask) so the additional HASL adds to the copper.

[@SuperMakeSomething]

@@RoterFruchtZwerg Good points! Thank you for the tips!

[@SandeepKumar-qh3zs]

How did I not know of this channel? Subscribed +1

[@SuperMakeSomething]

Thank you!

[@kdiggity11]

There is pcb width calculators online. It would stream line alot of that work.

[@MarcelRobitaille]

It's more complicated than just current.

[@joshinils]

i have no clue about electronics, but i would like to see you build som etesting pcs where you measure the traces with varying widths and shapes for their characteristics and explain them and why they happen

[@SuperMakeSomething]

That would be cool!

[@artyomidk4047]

A like and a sub from me! So underrated work.

[@SuperMakeSomething]

Thank you!

[@marvinhensbergen1515]

I'm not a expert.. But using wider traces does not have a negative effect in any way, so best to use wider when you have the space. Energy loss and voltage drop are the most important, if your trace heats up 6 degrees it's to narrow for my taste. You shown you have a decent voltage drop, so why not make traces much wider.. My question is, why not.

[@SuperMakeSomething]

This video was mainly about exploring how accurate the IPC spec is, but based on what I have learned since making this, I generally agree. I think that there are some edge cases for analog design (I am definitely not an expert in this area though), but it seems that “as wide as possible” is usually best as long as it doesn’t violate other rules like minimum spacing between traces to minimize interference, having a ground plane, etc.

[@marvinhensbergen1515]

@@SuperMakeSomething I also learned about trace heating, so usefull video anyway😉 I recently made my first pcb and used a online calculator to calculate heat loses in traces. I made my traces with a width of 1 and 2 mm for currents below 500mA I would only smaller than 1mm if space is restricted.