Printed Circuit Board Layout Optimization
Printed Circuit Board layout is crucial to the success of any application, both from the perspective of the power supply and the actual load. A good Printed Circuit Board layout optimizes the overall system performance. A poor layout may result in power supply instability, low efficiency, noise, or data corruption throughout the system. Improper design of high current connections may result in unexpected Printed Circuit Board heating resistive losses.
It may also result in parasitic spikes which occur during transient loading.in order to optimize the Printed Circuit Board layout, reverse engineering PCB technique has play an increasing role over the past decade for optimize the current layout to a better and more suitable one;
Routing power control signals is frequently one of the most overlooked aspects of system design—much care is taken with respect to proper layout of sensitive digital and analog signals for most system components while the critical signals interfacing with the power system are typically routed based on convenience, not proper design guidelines. Finally, Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) can degrade the performance of an otherwise well designed system. While there is no proven methodology to eliminating EMI from a power system, there are several guidelines for reducing EMI which will be covered.
Ideal layout of copper planes at the point of load is dependent upon the type of loading being applied. There are essentially two types of high-current, low-voltage load configurations: a) single device high current load (Fig. 1) and b) multiple devices powered by a single low-voltage rail.
For typical low-voltage, high-current applications DC impedance and AC impedance (inductance) must be minimized. Minimizing DC impedance in a board layout requires an analysis using squares to determine the geometry and the impedance of the interconnect.
The regulation function is performed by the PRM Regulator which can be located away from the VTM in a less space-constrained area of the motherboard, or on another board altogether.