How Many Layers are Best?

How Many Layers are Best?

Depending on the complexity of the overall circuitry being designed, a designer must decide
how many layers the PCB should be.

Single-Sided
Very simple consumer electronics are sometimes fabricated on single-sided PCBs, keeping the raw board material inexpensive (FR–1 or FR–2) with thin copper cladding. These designs frequently include many jumper wires, simulating the circuit routing on a double-sided board. This technique is only recommended for low-frequency circuitry. For reasons described below, this type of design is extremely susceptible to radiated noise. It is harder to design a board of this type, because of the many things can go wrong. Many complex designs have been successfully implemented with this technique, but they require a lot of forethought. An example is a television set that puts all of the analog circuitry on a single-sided board at the bottom of the case, and uses the metallized CRT itself to shield the board from a separate digital tuning board near the top of the set. Be prepared to get creative if the design demands high volume, low cost PCBs.



Double-Sided

The next level of complexity is double-sided. Although there are some double-sided FR–2 boards, they are more commonly fabricated with FR–4 material. The increased strength of FR–4 material supports vias better. Doubled-sided boards are easier to route because there are two layers of foil, and it is possible to route signals by crossing traces on different layers. Crossing traces, however, is not recommended for analog circuitry. Wherever possible, the bottom layer should be devoted to a ground plane, and all other signals routed on the top layer. A ground plane provides several benefits:

1. Ground is frequently the most common connection in the circuit. Having it continuous on the bottom layer usually makes the most sense for circuit routing.
2. It increases mechanical strength of the board.
3. It lowers the impedance of all ground connections in the circuit, which reduces undesirable conducted noise.
4. It adds a distributed capacitance to every net in the circuit — helping to suppress radiated noise.
5. It acts a shield to radiated noise coming from underneath the board.

Multi-Layer

Double-sided boards, in spite of their benefits, are not the best method of construction, especially for sensitive or high-speed designs. The most common board thickness is 1.5 mm. This separation is too great for full realization of some of the benefits listed above. Distributed capacitance, for example, is very low due to the separation.

Critical designs call for multi-layer boards. Some of the reasons are obvious:

1. Better routing for power as well as ground connections. If the power is also on a plane, it is available to all points in the circuit simply by adding vias.
2. Other layers are available for signal routing, making routing easier.
3. There will be distributed capacitance between the power and ground planes, reducing high frequency noise.

There are other reasons for multi-layer boards, however, that may not be obvious or intuitive.

1. Better EMI/RFI rejection. There is due to the image plane effect, which has been known since the time of Marconi. When a conductor is placed close to a parallel conductive surface, most of the high frequency currents will return directly under the conductor, flowing in the opposite direction. This mirror image of the conductor within the plane creates a transmission line. Since currents are equal and opposite in the transmission line, it is relatively immune to radiated noise. It also couples the signal very efficiently. The image plane effect works equally well with ground and power planes, but they must be continuous. Any gap or discontinuity causes the beneficial effects to quickly vanish. There is more on this in the following paragraphs.
2. Reduced overall project cost for small production runs. Although multi-layer boards are more expensive to manufacture, EMI/RFI requirements from the FCC or other agencies may require expensive testing of the design. If there are problems, it can force a complete redesign of the PCB, leading to additional rounds of testing. A multi-layer PCB can have as much as 20-dB better EMI/RFI performance over a 2-layer PCB. If production volumes are going to be small, it makes sense to make a better PCB to begin with, than try to cut costs and take the risk of failing $25,000 to $50,000 tests.