PCB Tech - Points that must be paid attention to in the PCB design process

In any switching power supply design, the physical design of the PCB board is the last link. If the design method is improper, the PCB may radiate too much electromagnetic interference and cause the power supply to work unstable. The following are the matters needing attention in each step analyze.

1. From the schematic to the PCB design process

Establish component parameters -> input principle netlist -> design parameter settings -> manual layout -> manual wiring -> verify design -> review -> CAM output

2. Parameter setting

The distance between adjacent wires must be able to meet electrical safety requirements, and in order to facilitate operation and production, the distance should be as wide as possible. The minimum spacing must be at least suitable for the voltage tolerated. When the wiring density is low, the spacing of the signal lines can be increased appropriately. For signal lines with a large gap between high and low levels, the spacing should be as short as possible and the spacing should be increased. Generally, Set the trace spacing to 8mil. The distance between the edge of the inner hole of the PCB pad and the edge of the printed board should be greater than 1mm, so as to avoid pad defects during processing. When the traces connected to the pads are thin, the connection between the pads and the traces should be designed into a drop shape. The advantage of this is that the pads are not easy to peel, but the traces and the pads are not easily disconnected.

3. PCB component layout

Practice has proved that even if the circuit schematic design is correct and the printed circuit board is not properly designed, it will adversely affect the reliability of electronic equipment.

For example, if the two thin parallel lines of the printed board are close together, it will cause the delay of the signal waveform, and the reflection noise will be formed at the terminal of the transmission line; the interference caused by the improper consideration of the power supply and ground will cause the product The performance drops, so when designing the PCB, you should pay attention to adopting the correct method.

Each switching power supply has four current loops:

Power switch AC circuit

Output rectifier AC circuit

Input signal source current loop

Output load current loop input loop

The input capacitor is charged by an approximate DC current, and the filter capacitor mainly acts as a broadband energy storage; similarly, the output filter capacitor is also used to store high-frequency energy from the output rectifier, and at the same time eliminate the DC energy of the output load loop.

Therefore, the terminals of the input and output filter capacitors are very important. The input and output current loops should only be connected to the power supply from the terminals of the filter capacitor respectively; if the connection between the input/output loop and the power switch/rectifier loop cannot be connected to the capacitor The terminal is directly connected, and the AC energy will be radiated into the environment by the input or output filter capacitor.

The AC circuit of the power switch and the AC circuit of the rectifier contain high-amplitude trapezoidal currents. The harmonic components of these currents are very high. The frequency is much greater than the fundamental frequency of the switch. The peak amplitude can be as high as 5 times the amplitude of the continuous input/output DC current. The transition time is usually About 50ns.

These two loops are the most prone to electromagnetic interference, so these AC loops must be laid out before the other printed lines in the power supply. The three main components of each loop are filter capacitors, power switches or rectifiers, inductors or transformers. Place them next to each other and adjust the position of the components to make the current path between them as short as possible.

The best way to establish a switching power supply layout is similar to its electrical design. The best design process is as follows:

Place the transformer

Design the power switch current loop

Design output rectifier current loop

Control circuit connected to AC power circuit

4. PCB wiring

The switching power supply contains high-frequency signals. Any printed line on the PCB can function as an antenna. The length and width of the printed line will affect its impedance and inductance, thereby affecting the frequency response. Even printed lines that pass DC signals can couple to radio frequency signals from adjacent printed lines and cause circuit problems (and even radiate interfering signals again).

Therefore, all printed lines that pass AC current should be designed to be as short and wide as possible, which means that all components connected to the printed lines and other power lines must be placed very close.

The length of the printed line is proportional to its inductance and impedance, and the width is inversely proportional to the inductance and impedance of the printed line. The length reflects the wavelength of the printed line's response. The longer the length, the lower the frequency at which the printed line can send and receive electromagnetic waves, and it can radiate more radio frequency energy.

According to the size of the printed circuit board current, try to increase the width of the power line to reduce the loop resistance. At the same time, make the direction of the power line and the ground line consistent with the direction of the current, which helps to enhance the anti-noise ability.

Grounding is the bottom branch of the four current loops of the switching power supply. It plays an important role as a common reference point for the circuit, and it is an important method to control interference. Therefore, the placement of the grounding wire should be carefully considered in the layout. Mixing various groundings will cause unstable power supply operation.

5. Check

After the PCB wiring design is completed, it is necessary to carefully check whether the wiring design conforms to the rules set by the designer; at the same time, it is also necessary to confirm whether the rules made meet the requirements of the printed board production process. Generally check the lines and lines, line and component pads, Whether the distance between the line and the through hole, the component pad and the through hole, the through hole and the through hole is reasonable, whether it meets the production requirements, whether the width of the power line and the ground line is appropriate, whether there is a ground line in the PCB Wide place.

6. Design output

Precautions for exporting Gerber files:

The layers that need to be output are wiring layer (bottom layer), silk screen layer (including top silk screen, bottom silk screen), solder mask (bottom solder mask), drilling layer (bottom layer), and also generate drilling files (NC Drill)

When setting the Layer of the silk screen layer, do not select Part Type, select the top layer (bottom layer) and Outline, Text, Line of the silk screen layer

When setting the Layer of each layer, select the Board Outline. When setting the Layer of the silk screen layer, do not select the Part Type, and select the Outline and Text of the top layer (bottom layer) and the silk screen layer.