Flawless PCB design: RF rules of thumb - Part 1

Flawless PCB design: RF rules of thumb - Part 1

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In this series, I'm going to show you some very simple rules to achieve the highest performance from your radio frequency PCB design for your electronics project. I'll do this by showing you how to improve the grounding and reduce the crosstalk. These rules apply to both analog , digital and RF electronics. I'll also share some rules of thumb for PCB parasitics that you can use in electronics simulations. I'll prove my points with actual measurements on dedicated test PCBs. In this first part, I'll focus on why ground planes are so effective.

00:00 Introduction
00:14 The fundamental problem
01:25 Where does current run?
03:52 What is a Ground Plane?
04:57 Estimating trace impedance
05:46 Estimating parasitic capacitance
07:38 Demo 1: Ground Plane obstruction
13:15 Demo 2: Microstrip loss
13:54 Demo 3: Floating copper
16:23 Conclusion

[TheRevenant-pnxi]

thank you very much for the super helpful practical video!

[kensmith]

You made a slight error: Between two traces in a PCB, the dielectric constant is not really 1. The volume of space between the traces that gets used by the capacitance involves some "fringing" making it use some space that is inside the PCB. It doesn't change your argument but if you measure on a PCB you will see the capacitance is a bit higher than you expect.

[dephnor]

Hello, I am an IT student interested in programming, electronics and all it's aspects. I am sure you hear this often, but this 15-minute video taught me more than any lecture/lesson from a teacher at my high school. I would like to express my gratitude for sharing your knowledge.

Since you've linked the checklist in the description, I thought I'd at least leave a comment for the youtube algorithm and to thank you.

[thepega]

Hi! Studying now 4th year electrical engineering and your video was great!
Send met the Checklist

[ggendel]

Thank you. This was a clear explanation of issues with ground-planes which presented a complex issue making it relatively intuitive. Sounds like there are a lot more goodies in your checklist. I'd love a copy.

[ZzFlaviazZ]

hi! i am a mechanical engineer undergraduate that had to do analogue pcb design and your videos saved me. so thankful for the free checklist!

[linkh]

The physical layout and routing of PCB designs where RF is present are 100% vital. I just completed my first design of a board and the layout and routing were scrutinized just as much as the actual schematic design itself.

Awesome video! Im will definitely be checking out your other videos and look forward to future ones as well.

[SpinStar]

SUBSCRIBED!!!
I am a retired electrical engineer and did mostly digital but have dedicated my remaining heartbeats to attempting to master RF design as best I can.
So, I enjoyed your video very much and appreciate the modeling and measurements that you made.
Also, looks like this is a new channel so I hope you do mainly RF (at least for me)
Many years ago, I got pushed into designing a 2-layer RF PCB. So, I just put the GP on the top; circuit traces on the bottom and used TH ccomponents.
The board worked amazingly fine and later I learned that this was the correct way to do it, In my mind, it was the only way to get a continuous and contiguous GP!
Anyway, looking forward to further videos... 73!

[RexRectumIV]

As a teacher starting to teach PCB design to high school students (without an electrical engineering background), these and Phils Labs videos are amazing. Thank you so much!

Please send me the checklist! Thanks!

[EkTyr]

Awesome! This is so well made and practical. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[StevenStyczinski-sycj]

I definitely appreciate that you are sharing your experiences that you remember and Learned from. Thank you. Learning is about making mistakes; recognizing and learning from them and then pass on that knowledge to those that are willing to listen and learn. Those that were taught to stay away from FIRE never had a good barbecue!

[StevenStyczinski-sycj]

Bravo; very good explanations! In the 1970’s and 1980’s as a hobbyist I had several friends that were printed circuit board designers. They said that designing pcb’s was an ART. And they prided themselves on designing their pcb’s to look aesthetically pleasing. They would arrange all the resistor in nice neet rows, Then they would blame the circuit routing software on why their circuit boards didn’t work!

[ClaudioGabrielCastillo-uqhj]

No tengo idea que camino vas a tomar con electronica de simplemente por ser RF te voy a seguir. Hay tan poco material de RF bien explicado que tu canal se vuelve valioso.

[PrinceWesterburg]

This is not just a radio freq thing, I build valve amps for hifi and guitar. For decades I’ve seen people cover the insides of guitars and amps with foil tape which is ungrounded and it picks up so much noise, so then they paint everything with graphite paint and remove all the top and bottom end of the freq range! Then they install active pickups [facepalm]
I apply the same practices as you and have gorgeous sounding guitars and hifi :o)
And for anyone reading this, I have decades of experience but still watch videos like and read books this as a refresher, its good practice.

[kingsman]

Hans, what a fantastic video, thank you very much for all your efforts I've learnt a lot. 10/10 from me.

[Slibemaskine]

What a great video! Through my work in Magnetic Resonance hardware development, I encounter RF circuitry quite often. Now I finally know why those PCBs have these rows of vias following a transmission line on a PCB :D

[TesGoer]

Excellent video that combines theory and practice, thanks a lot! As a student, I've been told many times by many different people that the integrity of the ground plane is very important when designing high-frequency circuits, but I never really understood it from a theoretical aspect (because I thought it's something that is really hard to analyze without the help of computer simulation). This video gives me the courage and shows me the correct route to actually analyze such problems quantitatively. Many thanks!

"Send me the Checklist"

[annag]

So rare to see this level of detail and explanation to such a vital and intrinsic part of our daily lives, electronic design. I was due to do some LVDS work and was somewhat nervous of board layout challenges. A copy of your checklist would be really you

[ronlinde]

Hi Hans, you started a channel to educate people. Cool! Nice to see that you share some of your experience 👍🏻
Regards, Ron (now lecturing engineering at NHL Stenden)

[babbadge]

Heel instructief. Eén dingetje: uitspraak: (Rule of) Thumb spreek je niet uit als thump maar als thum!