Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • State Not Answered
  • Replies 7 replies
  • Subscribers 302 subscribers
  • Views 4226 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related
See a helpful answer?

Be sure to click 'more' and select 'suggest as answer'!

If you're the thread creator, be sure to click 'more' then 'Verify as Answer'!

Why use ground fill on PCB?

colporteur

I'm looking for some insight into Ground Fill, extending the copper pour when manufacturing a PCB  to create a ground plane. I've just completed a PCB layout in Fritzing that uses an Arduino Mega. There is plenty of empty PCB real estate. I thought why not fill it.

I seem to recall doing some reading on Ground Fill. I have never used the technique before but have seen it used on PCB's. I found a number of benefits in my search but no downside. Methinks the PCB manufactures would want extra coins for this! I'm curious is there a use case where you would not use Ground Fill?

If Ground fill is used should it cover both sides of the PCB or limit it to one side?

I've used the Fritzing function and it appears to work. Looking for some experience to chime in.

Parents
  • 0

    You have it backwards, my friend. The copper is already on the board and gets removed by the process (except for plated thru holes). Therefore, there's no extra charge for ground planes and in fact, it costs the PCB mfgs less to make a board with a ground plane. as far as your question, I'm not sure I fully understand what you're asking, You can choose to make a layer ground plane or with not and if you choose ground plane, then you do nothing in the layout software. I use Altium Designer and it works that way. The other way is to not choose ground plane for a layer and then to add a fill. You can fill the entire layer and then it will be no different than if you have chosen that layer to be a ground plane, or you can make a simple shape like a rectangle or you can make a very complex shape. 

    In my most recent layout on a 6-layer bd, I used a couple of layers for large ground fills, but I had several of them, each assigned to a different net. For example, I had a 3.3V, 1.2V, 5.0V, 12V and although they're not technically a "ground", they got fills to lower the impedance. This gave me the best of both worlds, heavy planes and multiple nets instead of just assigning those layers to "GND".

Reply
  • 0

    You have it backwards, my friend. The copper is already on the board and gets removed by the process (except for plated thru holes). Therefore, there's no extra charge for ground planes and in fact, it costs the PCB mfgs less to make a board with a ground plane. as far as your question, I'm not sure I fully understand what you're asking, You can choose to make a layer ground plane or with not and if you choose ground plane, then you do nothing in the layout software. I use Altium Designer and it works that way. The other way is to not choose ground plane for a layer and then to add a fill. You can fill the entire layer and then it will be no different than if you have chosen that layer to be a ground plane, or you can make a simple shape like a rectangle or you can make a very complex shape. 

    In my most recent layout on a 6-layer bd, I used a couple of layers for large ground fills, but I had several of them, each assigned to a different net. For example, I had a 3.3V, 1.2V, 5.0V, 12V and although they're not technically a "ground", they got fills to lower the impedance. This gave me the best of both worlds, heavy planes and multiple nets instead of just assigning those layers to "GND".

Children
No Data