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Four Layer Boards Can Reduce Emmissions

March 2, 2015 By John Lemke

Adding internal planes to the board doesn’t automatically reduce emissions.  The amount of RF radiation from the PCB is proportional to the loop area of signals with high-speed transitions. The loop area of a signal is the path from the signal source to the signal receivers and back. Usually, the signal return path is through circuit common. By adding a ground plane over which the signal trace will run a capacitively coupled return path is added throughout the signal’s run length. This is why switching a design from two to four layers usually will reduce emissions. Other layout practices will also reduce emissions. Examples are don’t cross high-speed nets with nets connected to wires that go off the board, reduce signal path lengths, add a circuit common return net adjacent to the signal net, and there are many others. If you have specific questions or problems and would like to know more contact me.

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