Electromagnetic Interference and
Compatibility
EC635
PCB Layout and Stack Up
• In most products, the electronics are located on a printed circuit board
(PCB), the design and layout of which is crucial to the functionality and
electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) performance of the product.
PCB With Defined Keep out zone for
Critical Signals
System Clock
• Locate crystals, oscillators, or resonators as close
to the circuits that use them as possible.
• Add a ground plane on the component side of
the board under the crystal, oscillator, and/or
clock driver.
• Connect this plane to the main ground plane
with multiple vias.
• If the crystal or oscillator has a metal case,
ground it to this component-side ground plane,
and provide a provision for a board level shield
over this area in case it should be needed
PCB TO Chassis Ground Connection
• A major source of radiation from electronic
products is due to common-mode currents on
the external cables.
• The internal circuit ground should be connected
to the chassis at a point as close to the location
that the cables terminate on the PCB as possible
• Any impedance between the circuit ground and
the chassis will produce a voltage drop, and will
excite the cables with a common-mode voltage,
which causes them to radiate.
RETURN PATH DISCONTINUITIES
• Slots or splits in the power and/or ground plane
• Signal traces changing layers, which causes the
return currents to change reference planes
• Ground plane cutouts around connectors, or
under ICs
Slots in Ground/Power Planes
Split Ground/Power planes
• Split the power plane and live with the routing restrictions.
• Use a separate solid power plane for each dc voltage.
• Use a ‘‘power island’’ for one or more of the voltages. A power
island is a small isolated power plane on a signal layer (usually on
the top or bottom layer of the board) under one or more ICs.
• Route some (or all) of the dc voltages as a trace on a signal layer.
• As a last resort, add stitching capacitors where the trace crosses the
split plane.
Stitching Capacitors
Ground Fill
PCB Stack Up
• The number of layers
• The number and types of planes (power and/or ground)
• The ordering or sequence of the layers
• The spacing between the layers
– In deciding on the number of layers, the following
should be considered:
– The number of signals to be routed and PCB cost.
Clock frequency.
– Will the product have to meet Class A or Class B
emission requirements?
– Will the PCB be in a shielded or unshielded
enclosure?
– The EMC engineering expertise of the design team.
Multilayer Board Objective
• A signal layer should always be adjacent to a plane.
• Signal layers should be tightly coupled (close) to their adjacent
planes.
• Power and ground planes should be closely coupled together.*
• High-speed signals should be routed on buried layers located
between planes. The planes can then act as shields and contain the
radiation from the high-speed traces.
• Multiple-ground planes are very advantageous, because they will
lower the ground (reference plane) impedance of the board and
reduce the common-mode radiation.
• Then critical signals are routed on more than one layer, they should
be confined to two layers adjacent to the same plane. As discussed,
this objective has usually been ignored.
Four Layer Board
Four Layer Board
Six Layer Board
Six Layer Board
General Steps in PCB Stack up
• Determine the number of signal routing layers required
• Determine how to handle multiple dc voltages
• Determine the number of power planes required for the various system
voltages
• Determine whether multiple voltages will be on the same power plane
layer, thereby requiring a split-plane, and routing restrictions on the
adjacent layers
• Assign each signal layer pair to a solid reference plane as
• Pair power and ground planes as shown in Fig. 16-29B
• Determine the ordering of the layers
• Determine the spacing between layers
• Define any necessary routing restrictions
