PCB Technical - Multi-power layer design

Multi-power layer design
4-layer board
There are several potential problems with the 4-layer board design. First of all, the traditional four-layer board with a thickness of 62 mils, even if the signal layer is on the outer layer, and the power and ground layers are on the inner layer, the distance between the power layer and the ground layer is still too large. The following two alternatives to traditional 4-layer boards. Both of these solutions can improve the performance of EMI suppression, but they are only suitable for applications where the component density on the board is low enough and there is enough area around the components (place the required power supply copper layer).
The first is the preferred solution. The outer layers of the PCB are all ground layers, and the middle two layers are signal/power layers. The power supply on the signal layer is routed with a wide line, which can make the path impedance of the power supply current low, and the impedance of the signal microstrip path is also low. From the perspective of EMI control, this is the best 4-layer PCB structure available. In the second scheme, the outer layer uses power and ground, and the middle two layers use signals. Compared with the traditional 4-layer board, the improvement is smaller, and the interlayer impedance is as poor as the traditional 4-layer board.

If you want to control the trace impedance, the above stacking scheme must be very careful to arrange the traces under the power and ground copper islands. In addition, the copper islands on the power supply or ground layer should be interconnected as much as possible to ensure DC and low-frequency connectivity.

6-layer board
If the density of components on a 4-layer board is relatively high, a 6-layer board is best. However, some stacking schemes in the 6-layer board design are not good enough to shield the electromagnetic field, and have little effect on the reduction of the transient signal of the power bus. Two examples are discussed below.
In the first example, the power supply and ground are placed on the 2nd and 5th layers respectively. Due to the high copper impedance of the power supply, it is very unfavorable to control the common mode EMI radiation. However, from the point of view of signal impedance control, this method is very correct.
In the second example, the power supply and ground are placed on the 3rd and 4th layers respectively. This design solves the problem of power supply copper impedance. Due to the poor electromagnetic shielding performance of the 1st and 6th layers, the differential mode EMI is increased. If the number of signal lines on the two outer layers is the least, and the trace length is very short (shorter than 1/20 of the wavelength of the highest harmonic of the signal), this design can solve the differential mode EMI problem. Fill the area with no components and no traces on the outer layer with copper and ground the copper-clad area (every 1/20 wavelength as an interval), which is particularly good at suppressing differential mode EMI. As mentioned earlier, it is necessary to connect the copper area with the internal ground plane at multiple points.
The general high-performance 6-layer board design generally disposes the first and sixth layers as ground layers, and the third and fourth layers are used for power and ground. Since there are two double microstrip signal line layers in the middle between the power layer and the ground layer, the EMI suppression capability is excellent. The disadvantage of this design is that there are only two routing layers. As mentioned earlier, if the outer traces are short and copper is laid in the traceless area, the same stacking can also be achieved with a traditional 6-layer board.
Another 6-layer board layout is signal, ground, signal, power, ground, signal, which can realize the environment required for advanced signal integrity design. The signal layer is adjacent to the ground layer, and the power layer and the ground layer are paired. Obviously, the disadvantage is the unbalanced stacking of layers.
This usually brings trouble to manufacturing. The solution to the problem is to fill all the blank areas of the third layer with copper. After the copper is filled, if the copper density of the third layer is close to the power layer or ground layer, this board can not be strictly counted as a structurally balanced circuit board . The copper-filled area must be connected to power or ground. The distance between the connection vias is still 1/20 wavelength, and it may not be necessary to connect everywhere, but it should be connected under ideal circumstances.

10-layer board
Since the insulating isolation layer between the multilayer boards is very thin, the impedance between the 10 or 12 layers of the circuit board is very low. As long as there is no problem with the layering and stacking, excellent signal integrity can be expected. It is more difficult to manufacture 12-layer boards with a thickness of 62mil, and there are not many manufacturers that can process 12-layer boards.
Since there is always an insulating layer between the signal layer and the loop layer, the solution of assigning the middle 6 layers to route the signal lines in a 10-layer board design is not the best. In addition, it is important to make the signal layer adjacent to the loop layer, that is, the board layout is signal, ground, signal, signal, power, ground, signal, signal, ground, and signal.
This design provides a good path for the signal current and its loop current. The proper wiring strategy is to route the wires in the X direction on the first layer, the Y directions on the third layer, and the X directions on the fourth layer, and so on. Looking at the routing intuitively, the first layer 1 and the third layer are a pair of layered combinations, the 4th and 7th layers are a pair of layered combinations, and the 8th and 10th layers are the last pair of layered combinations. When it is necessary to change the routing direction, the signal line on the first layer should use the "via" to reach the third layer and then change the direction. In fact, it may not always be possible to do this, but as a design concept, it must be followed as much as possible.
Similarly, when the signal routing direction changes, it should go from the 8th and 10th layers or from the 4th to the 7th layer through vias. This wiring ensures the tightest coupling between the forward path of the signal and the loop. For example, if the signal is routed on the first layer and the loop is routed on the second layer and only on the second layer, then the signal on the first layer is transferred to the third layer through the "via". The loop is still on the second layer, so as to maintain the characteristics of low inductance, large capacitance and good electromagnetic shielding performance.
What if the actual wiring is not like this? For example, the signal line on the first layer goes through the via hole to the 10th layer. At this time, the loop signal has to find the ground plane from the 9th layer, and the loop current must find the nearest ground via (such as the ground pin of a resistor or capacitor) . If there happens to be such a via nearby, you are really lucky. If there is no such close via hole available, the inductance will become larger, the capacitance will be reduced, and the EMI will definitely increase.
When the signal line must leave the current pair of wiring layers to other wiring layers through vias, ground vias should be placed nearby the vias so that the loop signal can return to the proper grounding layer smoothly. For the layered combination of the 4th and 7th layers, the signal loop will return from the power layer or the ground layer (that is, the 5th or 6th layer), because the capacitive coupling between the power layer and the ground layer is good, and the signal is easy to transmit.

Multi-power layer design If two power layers of the same voltage source need to output large currents, the circuit board should be laid out into two sets of power layers and ground layers. In this case, an insulating layer is placed between each pair of power and ground layers. In this way, we obtain the two pairs of power bus bars with equal impedances that divide the current we expect. If the stacking of the power layers causes the impedance to be unequal, the shunt will not be uniform, the transient voltage will be much larger, and the EMI will increase sharply.
If there are multiple power supply voltages with different values on the circuit board, multiple power supply layers are required accordingly. Remember to create their own paired power supply and ground layers for different power supplies. In the above two cases, when determining the position of the paired power layer and ground layer on the circuit board, keep in mind the manufacturer's requirements for the balanced structure.