How to choose PCB?

[@rajgunaseelan44]

Thanks a lot sir. One suggestion. Please make more of these small videos, kinda like pointers from the long videos. I regret of not having the time to watch 1 hour videos loaded with useful information. Thank you so much again. Continue the good work ❤❤

[@Mike-ny5fm]

You still continue to be the best in explaining what I need to hear! Thanks Robert.

[@RelayComputer]

You already covered this in detail in many previous videos, and I have been applying this knowledge on my high speed designs. This shorter video obviously can't go deep into the reasons why these tips will improve signal integrity and reduce cross talk, but it makes a great job of summarising it

[@MatthewHoworko]

Fantastic video, Robert! You present this important information in such an understandable way.

[@manouchehrmail]

Thank you so much dear Robert for this short but still very useful video.

[@joeselvik9355]

Loved the short-form content! Would happily watch more of these over lunch.

[@anthonyk8027]

for 4 layer designs i use l2 and l4 for gnd planes. also i prefer only front side components mounting althougn it makes boards bigger. it’s kinda cool when the back side of the pcb is solid (no traces) and helps to radiate heat from bga chips.

[@KofiAsare0]

Excellent info, 4 layers with 2 GNDs seemed like a waste until I looked at the oscilloscope results!

[@haythemjelassi4766]

Thank you Robert for bringing up this point. Could you please create a tutorial where you explain how to perform SPICE simulations in Altium for crosstalk analysis and how to improve signal integrity using the SPICE tool?

[@pnrking]

Amazing details thanks for explaining 🙏🏻❤️

[@karlOFuchs]

I have watched many of your videos to figure out how to pick my four layer stack up and came to the same summary conclusion shared here.

[@WindFaqeur]

simple and straight to the point!

[@TheDutchGuyOnYT]

Very nice video Robert! I am currently busy updating my Pcb Toolkit app (iPhone) which I use while designing my boards and the current stackup function is not to my liking, because they change a lot and the manufacturers give a lot of options. Maybe too much sometimes haha. Your video gives me ideas about how to solve that.

[@satoshimanabe2493]

Thanks for the great video! One additional advantage of thinner prepreg may be having a thicker core makes the board stiffer/stronger. This may be important in applications with high G-load. (i.e. automotive, model rockets) This makes me wonder: why do all standard 6-layer stackups have two core layers? It would seem a single core would be much stiffer. It could also improve signal integrity with a dedicated power plane, if you do something like S1-G1-S2-P-G2-S3, as all signal layers would then be coupled closely to ground. (With 2-core, S2 would couple more closely to P than G1.)

[@RobertFeranec]

I am not a PCB manufacturing expert, but I believe more cores means cheaper manufacturing - they can glue all the layers of the PCB in less steps. Also, during baking process, the layers can slide on prepreg and that may increase difficulty of building accurate PCB with too many prepregs ... maybe.

[@cedricb2344]

For decoupling at high frequencies having a big power plane very close to a reference plane gives you a big capacitors more effective than capacitors components at high frequencies. That makes 6+ layer pcbs much better for decoupling. I am not sure however about the best layer thicknesses on a 4 layers stackups when you have a power plane and only one full reference plane.

[@AllenSharkY]

👍Very useful, thanks bro!

[@kumu2024]

Thanks. But talking about only pcb routing without mentioning that how can big ground plains can also make your life harder is a miss. Using small BGA mixed with other bigger components while you have big GND will make your life much harder and you might fail measurably in mounting process in factory. Another thing that you should consider when you use fill area in to your PCB, components GND pin SHOULD not get bigger traces compared to other pins of the BGA. That could cause a big issue for mounting the component. Either you need to heat up the IC more than what it should be heated which can lead to short in those points. Or you will get cold-joints for the GND. I have seen that kind of design for (8 layers). They used Altuim designer to fill the are with GND. The tiny BGAs got their GND very big traces while the other pin were only small traces. We got often too much trouble to fix the heat-profile for the machine .. and either got short or cold soldering. There are much more to consider than only the signals.

[@TheDutchGuyOnYT]

Good point. There is never a one solution for all.

[@RobertFeranec]

Interesting. I have been using solid GND planes in all my PCBs (except for two layer PCBs) for over 24 years and I have only seen 1 serious difficulty in board assembly - it was when through hole pins were connected to 4 parallel GND planes and there was no thermal relief. Of course I have seen some components lifted up, but assembly house was always able to sort out everything. If anyone has materials on this topic, I would be very interested in making an interview video about it. Send me email to [e-mail] Thx

[@kumu2024]

@@RobertFeranec I am sorry, I cannot participated in that. That IC (similar to MAX17050 -WLP package ) was used on several places, made the profile adjustment very difficult. The tiny BGA with 9 pins was so difficult to mount, even for the machine. Designer didn't think about adjusting the GND filling so the GND pin doesn't get a huge trace which was the case. And that resulted in a huge problem. I mention that so you and others think about it. Don't let Altuim or any other CAD fill your GND without verifying that is good for the sake of mounting components specially QFN and BGA

[@RobertFeranec]

@@kumu2024 this looks more like a specific component / footprint problem which needs to be handled carefully

[@kumu2024]

@@RobertFeranec I dont think so. I had similar issue with other boards .. Combining different packages without taking in consideration of the thermal need of these components often leads to the same issue. But not many think about. Since it is a manufacturer problem than a designer in the first step. Often manufacturer tries their best to optimize the board-profile to match all these kind of diff components. But as I said, there is no profile that can save you when you have bigger traces and small tiny BGAs. Please think about that and ask other persons working in the manifestering processes.

[@shuashuashua1]

Thanks for next great video!

[@jortor2932]

Love you brother ❤

[@xniyazi]

thnx

[@316728237]

When 4 layer pcb, l3 used for power plane?