Ground Plane question

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Lennart
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Posted by Lennart: Thu. Mar 8, 2012 - 03:51 PM
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Hi,

I'm drawing a 2-sided PCB. First time.
How to treat the space between traces on the side of PCB where signals are routed?

Is it an advantage or disaster to fill the empty space with ground plane(s)?

There is a ground plane on the other side of the board, only interrupted by some power lines and some short signal traces.
Will weird things happen if there are ground planes on both sides of PCB (like a sandwich)?

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Learning and Information, General Electronics
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leon_heller
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Posted by leon_heller: Thu. Mar 8, 2012 - 03:56 PM
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That isn't a "ground plane", but copper pour. Ground and power planes are used with multi-layer boards and don't have any components on them.

Properly done, such copper areas can help with unwanted emissions and so on. Having them on both sides shouldn't cause problems.

Leon Heller G1HSM

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Lennart
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Posted by Lennart: Thu. Mar 8, 2012 - 04:13 PM
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Quote:
Having them on both sides shouldn't cause problems.
Thanks!

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leon_heller
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Posted by leon_heller: Thu. Mar 8, 2012 - 05:14 PM
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You should stitch them together where they overlap with plenty of vias.

Leon Heller G1HSM

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bobgardner
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Posted by bobgardner: Thu. Mar 8, 2012 - 06:13 PM
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SAT analogy question: ground plane is to air car as led zeppelin is to ??
(I'll start: hydrogen tank?)

Imagecraft compiler user

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ka7ehk
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Posted by ka7ehk: Thu. Mar 8, 2012 - 08:50 PM
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Well, bypassing Bob's little question...

Pour between traces is just fine IF THEY ARE NOT FLOATING. If traces are sensitive to coupling from adjacent lines, then adjacent pour can help. On the other hand, trace capacitance will be increased.

So, its a resounding "it depends"...

Jim

Jim Wagner Oregon Research Electronics, Consulting Div. Tangent, OR, USA http://www.orelectronics.net

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