Valley Services Electronics

Keep a cool head when tackling high-power circuit designs with a metal core PCB stackup.

Have you ever been deep in thought writing and transcribed the words you hear instead of what you intended to write? It was only late in my life that I realized how overloaded my brain becomes when trying to work silently and process spoken words simultaneously. Even if you haven’t experienced the exact phenomenon, the…

Defining the stackup early in the design helps constrain the layout and prevent downstream manufacturing issues. Primarily, a trace width based on the finest pitch component will act as an input to the impedance field solver software; this step ensures manufacturability and coordination with the characteristic impedance necessary for different transmission protocols. While most traces…

In the layout of printed circuit boards, width plays an important part, especially in the metal connections fabricated into the board called “traces.” Traces conduct signals to and from the pins of the components soldered to the board and carry varying amounts of current depending on the net. Additionally, the signal’s traces may have special…

Parasitic capacitance between high dv/dt devices (think transformers, transistors) and ground is a significant cause of common-mode EMI.

Few feelings are worse than performing a part buy and realizing the components aren’t suitable for the design as planned. Whether incorrect package styles or electrical parameters, the result is a delay in manufacturing while waiting for the next shipment. An even more ghastly possibility is the inclusion of components designated for obsolescence, which can…