1. A look at “Common” mistakes
PCB Design guidelines
A look at “Common” mistakes
David Green
Oklahoma State University

2. Ever hear interference generated by your cellphone?
Is this important?
Interference to other devices may cause reliability issues, safety/health concerns, etc.
Local interference on a PCB could cause increased bit error rate (BER), signal integrity problems, unintentional device resets/outages, voltage spikes, increased noise in on-board peripherals, etc.
Ever hear interference generated by your cellphone?

3. Overview of basic principles
Return current is the #1 cause for EMI
Remember, current flows in loops.
What path does current take on the reference plane?
For low frequencies return current follows a path of least resistance. For high frequencies current follows a path of least impedance.
The impedance for an inductor increases with increasing frequency. Must take into consideration at high frequencies.
“Ground is a place where potatoes and carrots thrive!”
– Dr. Bruce Archambeault

4. The Reference Plane Three critical functions:
Provides a stable voltage reference for digital signals
Distribute power to devices
Used to reduce interference between signal lines
The overall goal is to reduce return current loop area.
Some layout considerations:
Split plane – disrupts return current flow to excitation source. This can result in drastically increased emissions.
Placing holes in board for connector pins – Holes too big can essentially cause a split. This can be corrected by allowing space in between neighboring holes to allow return current to run through.
When running signal traces on the reference plane keep in mind their placement. Coupling can be reduced by placing signal lines perpendicular to traces on top of PCB.

5. Return Current Path
Frequency = 20 MHz
Top of PCB
Bottom of PCB

6. What is a Split Plane?
Because of the complexity of modern PCBs it is often necessary to embed a trace on the reference plane, creating a split in the reference plane [1] under what could unfortunately be a high-speed digital line.
This means that the return current must take a rather interesting path back to the source. This can result in a drastic increase in radiated emissions.
A simple PCB with a terminated trace crossing over a split:

7. Split Reference Plane Measurements
Measurements were performed in a fully anechoic chamber
Log periodic antenna used for far field measurements from 290 MHz – 2 GHz.
Dual Ridge Horn antenna used for 700 MHz to 4 GHz.

8. Reference plane Split Split Plane – DRG Split Plane – Log Periodic
Solid Plane – DRG
Solid Plane – Log Periodic

9. Adding a stitching capacitor to plane
Offset stitching capacitor
Centered stitching capacitor
Obvious difference between placing the capacitor at the center of the split and offset on the split
Not a significant difference between different values of stitching capacitors

10. Components act the way they should at all frequencies right?
Short answer: Nope!
Components do not behave as they were intended to at high frequencies

11. Decoupling Capacitors
Functions
Time domain view - Provides “charge storage” near the IC. Helps maintain supply voltage at the device.
Frequency domain view – Switching (ie. Logic gate switching, oscillators, etc.) can generate a wide range of frequency components. The decoupling cap acts as a low impedance shunt.
Some layout considerations:
Keep decoupling capacitors close to the IC of concern. Why? Because additional inductance introduced by the trace will effect how well high frequencies are filtered. Increased trace length = increased parasitic inductance.
General rule of thumb is that a single .01uF capacitor is sufficient. This isn’t necessarily true. If possible, use recommendations from IC/component datasheet. Capacitor will have a self resonance, this can be used to determine range of frequencies filtered.
Use a minimum of one cap per power pin.

12. Distributing Power
Generally, students in this course use a source multipoint/star power distribution.
Multipoint is okay and easy to implement, but be mindful of trace locations on PCB.
Source: PCB Design Guidelines for Reduced EMI by Texas Instruments

13. What about power regulators/Boost-Buck and other switching components?
Switching components, especially those which source a significant amount of current, can cause large frequency harmonics.
How do we suppress the generated RF noise? Use an RF choke (ie. Ferrite bead) and/or decoupling capacitor after the component.
What does the datasheet recommend?

14. Oscillators
Crystals and ceramic resonators should be placed away from high frequency devices. This reduces capacitive coupling between oscillator pins and PCB traces.
Oscillators should be placed close to the IC. Long trace leads can cause unwanted coupling, compromising the signal integrity of the clock signal.
A reference plane should be located under the oscillator
It is recommended to place a “guard ring” around the oscillator and associated components. The guard ring should be connected to the nearest VSS of the device.

15. Common Mistakes in Senior Projects
Leaving programmable I/O pins floating.
Leaving output pins unconnected is okay if they are ALWAYS output pins
A floating input pin WILL cause chip problems.
When setting up multiple μControllers/ devices for communication, be sure they share a common reference. In the past a team tried implementing SPI communication between PICs. The PICs weren’t communicating to one another. A simple wire connecting all of the device’s reference planes together could have solved the problem. Unfortunately, this wasted a considerable amount time.
Some considerations:
Set unused pins to be outputs or set to be input pins and use pullup or pulldown resistors.

16. Common Mistakes in Senior Projects
Check the reference plane. Traces will likely need to placed on the reference plane side of the board. Make sure these traces do not create a “ground island”.
If you have to place a signal line on the reference plane side of the PCB, do not route this parallel to a PWM or similarly switching line. An example: A couple of semesters ago a team routed a trace going to a speaker next to a trace going to a high-power LED that used a PWM signal to control it’s brightness. This resulted in an audible tone in the speaker while the LED was on.
In another project a team routed a wire near a switching device on a PCB. Interference was picked up by the speaker.

17. References
[1] Bruce Archambeault, et al., “Special Topics in EMI/EMC Modeling,” in EMI/EMC Computational Modeling Handbook, 2nd ed. Boston: Kluwer, 2001, pp [2] Texas Instruments, “PCB Design Guidelines for Reduced EMI,” [Online]. Available: