Guides

PCB design guides

Short, sourced articles that explain the design decisions behind the calculators, with numbers you can reproduce in the tools.

Controlled Impedance Explained: Microstrip, Stripline and Solder Mask
What PCB trace impedance is, when a trace needs it, how microstrip and stripline differ, and why solder mask, etching and closed-form formulas shift the result by several ohms. With field-solver numbers.
8 min read
How to Choose a PCB Stackup (and What 1080, 2116 and 7628 Mean)
A practical guide to 4- and 6-layer PCB stackups: layer order, reference planes, and how the prepreg glass style under the outer layer sets your trace widths, from 0.12 mm to over 1 mm for 50 Ω.
9 min read
PCIe Gen3 Routing on a Hobby Budget: Lessons from an M.2 NVMe Carrier Card
Impedance, AC coupling, skew, loss budget, vias and the reference clock for PCIe Gen3 on a standard FR-4 six-layer board, with numbers for trace width and loss per inch at 4 GHz.
10 min read
How Much Copper Does a Regulator Need? PCB Heat Spreading in Numbers
Why a hot SOT-223 or DPAK needs copper around it, how the thermal resistance falls with pour size and copper weight, why the returns diminish, and what datasheet θJA really means.
7 min read
Creepage and Clearance for Mains Circuits (IEC 60664-1)
How to find the minimum PCB spacing for 230 V and 120 V mains: rated impulse voltage, clearance, creepage, pollution degree, material group, reinforced insulation and slots, with worked examples.
8 min read