2-Layer PCB Design Tips - Phil's Lab #137

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[TIMESTAMPS]
00:00 Introduction

02:01 PCBWay
02:41 Altium Designer Free Trial

03:33 Why 2 Layers?
05:54 Design Constraints
08:34 Layer Assignment & Board Thickness
11:24 Component Placement
14:40 Routing Order, Power Routing
16:49 Signal Routing, GND Jumps/Pours/Stitching
23:06 RF & Controlled Impedance

28:54 2- vs 4-Layer PCB Considerations

31:23 Outro

[rraheem_p]

“Guys, we’re skipping lunch, Phil just dropped another one!”

[javaguru]

Phil, I hope you get all of the sponsorship money in the world. You deserve it. You are the best PCB and electronics learning channel on Youtube, bar none, and I have probably seen them all over the years. You have single-handedly pushed my own level of knowledge forward what would have otherwise taken me many, many years to attain on my own. You have my eternal respect and appreciation. Thank you ❤

[Aryan-dqll]

Dear Phil,
Thank you so much! I started watching your tutorials since earlier this year as per the requirement of my internship and now I have a job in my hand ( I am a final year EE student) before my graduation just because of your tutorials, I was able to clear interviews. Thanks a lot, I learnt a lot from your tutorials.

[satoshimanabe]

Thanks Phil for another helpful lesson!
One additional trick I've seen is to cross a track on the top, by using a 0603 or larger component. This would be limited to slow-speed signals only. Of course, this adds components (and therefore cost) so it's useful only if you really need this. For example, the bottom can only be ground in some RF designs, as the PCB is intended to be attached to a heatsink of the same size. Or you just absolutely detest having tracks on the bottom, even when no one else will be seeing them!

[SmashCatRandom]

Great video! One sneaky thing I've done with very tight designs is route GPIOs from MCUs under the chip, then out by going through an unused pin. For example if I have a SPI bus signal that can't be swapped, I'd route it via a generic GPIO that's not used in the design. Obviously this can only be done if the pin is high impedance at boot, and it can then never be used. Can save space in a pinch though! Another option is to create a custom footprint with solder mask over the pins you don't need, so you can route under them, but some PCB houses complain about it if doing the PCBA, I've found. Obviously also some routing is easier if the component is rotated 45 degrees.

[mwafakaljabi]

Such a deep and detailed dive.

I do feel though that it is almost never recommended to use a 2- layer instead of 4-layers specially for RF.

But as you said your tips are also valid for PCBs with higher count layers.

Really excited for your video with the two PCBs communicating.

Thank you Phil.

[edgerokoth]

THanks Phil for the free yt tutorials. THey have given me more than the school fees that I paid as an electronics eng student. Your mode of delivery is concise, simple and creative. I have literally mastered KiCad by following your tutorials especially the STM32 boards design. I am currently working to up my skills in Altium also through your videos. I know you are in Europe, but your hardwork and generosity has blessed an African somewhere in Kenya. THanks once again. May life favour you and reward you even more. You are such a rare, precious, intelligent, impactful, insightful, breed on earth. I will definitely follow your stripes in career life

[hxtec]

"RF schtick" 🤣🤣 Thanks so much for these awesome tutorials Phil, I recently just designed my 3rd board from an ESP32-S3 bare chip, thanks to your ESP32 hardware tutorial and Unexpected Maker's open source schematics! 😊😊

[shmuelbitton]

Dear phill
I have to say…you channel is amazing
A fully mine of knowledge ❤️
Thank you so much from Israel 🇮🇱 ❤

[msmith]

Excellent primer on PCB design.
I use cuts in the copper pour to intentionally guide the return current paths to separate out power and signal grounds of audio amplifier boards.
I also avoid introducing ground loops when cutting a ground plane perpendicularly to the current flow with a trace (like in your example) by cutting to copper up to one edge and leaving just one return path available past that trace.

[Elektrobastler]

At jlcpcb going from 2 to 4 layers (50x50mm, all "base" settings and no expensive add-ons, 10pc) it goes from 50ct to 70ct per unit.

[ZozobraDoom]

Another great and informative video. I'd love to see your strategies for creating multiple supply rails. I'm working out how to best tackle something that starts with a 12V input and needs a pretty clean adjustable 28-32V supply as well as low noise 5V and 3.3V supplies for a transimpedance amplifier and ADC, where the 5V is the TIA supply and the 3.3V is used as the TIA and ADC reference.

[GermanEngineer]

How does your Altium Layout design GUI look so pretty? Like all different Nets have different colors. And when you're routing a track, all different tracks become blurred with the min. distance between them. This just looks amazing.

I enjoy your video a lot! Always after seeing one of your videos I get instantly highly motivated to start some new PCB design. Thank you!

[TYGAMatt]

All my PCB designs have been two layer so far so this is invaluable info.
My last PCB worked perfectly using tips and tricks from your various tutorials.
One day I will take the four layer jump...

[BrentKung]

great video!
Another tip ill suggest, for 2 layer PCBs when possible use 0805 components as they allow you to run up to two signal traces underneath thus minimizing need for vias

[vi]

Hi Phil! You are an inspiration! Keep it up!You help us learn and grow. Love from India!!

[markhofmeister]

If you can keep your design to 2 layers, another cool tool that you can use for rapid prototyping is Advanced Circuit's "Barebones" prototyping service. They spin 2-layer FR-4 boards with no solder mask or silkscreen, but they do it in 1 day.

The PCBs are ugly, but the exposed copper is tremendously useful for RF prototyping. You can easily cut away traces, add copper tape, and solder jumper wires to tune things like antennas and trace inductors/capacitors. They're also dirt cheap.

[esven]

You can minimize some of the effects from a break in the ground plane by strapping signals over it as routed triplets (A more relaxed version of a cpwg) and for mixed signal designs guard rings and routed triplets in general can make a world of difference.

[neekonsaadat]

Phil, this was a great video as always, thank you for taking time to spread knowledge