Voltage Regulator Routing on a 2-Layer Board Part Two | PCB Layout

[@muhdiversity7409]

Your audio sounds so much better! Thanks for fixing this and thanks for the pop filter! Awesome.

[@myetis1990]

Hi Zach, great job as ever. You know there is a lot of power module ICs that contain an Inductor on top. So how to deal with the loops on them, is there any difference?

[@Zachariah-Peterson]

I would expect they handle all of that when they create their design. If they are EMC compliant then their level of noise should not be excessive. If there is excessive noise from the board then they might address it in the packaging. For example in some larger power modules, they might use a shielded enclosure or apply a shielding material (compound or metallic/ferritic elements) into the enclosure to contain the noise.

[@AngryTowelie]

Hi Zach, can you elaborate on why there are no thermal reliefs on your pads in this design? If this regulator were part of a larger board, would you add them then? Much appreciated!

[@Zachariah-Peterson]

These pads are similar size as their copper connections so I would not expect major impacts on soldering. If this were part of a larger board and we were making through-hole connections to a plane then I would include these directly at the plane connection. For an SMD connection it's debatable. If we had a huge copper pour region on the same layer as the SMD pad then I think it can make sense to use a thermal relief connection on that pad. If the connection path is SMD pad -> trace -> via -> pour, I will be honest that I have never seen a good guideline for this. So I think that is something I'll have to talk with a manufacturer about in a video or on a podcast!

[@bernard.tomasevic]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. EMI design rule checker and Plane resonance analyzer are a thing in Altium?! Could you be kind enough to demonstrate these two things? :)

[@Zachariah-Peterson]

I'm still playing with these and learning how to use them, but yes definitely will show some tutorials on extensions! The plane resonance analyzer will be a lot of fun.

[@safwanramli2894]

is this 2 layer or 4