Make your life easier one PCB design rule at a time! 💅🏽

⚡️Component placement is a crucial step in PCB design. The more time you spend laying out your components, the less time you will spend escaping routing nightmares that you would otherwise put yourself into 😌 Always make sure to separate the digital part of the board from the analog, sensitive measurement signals from high-frequency lines, and high-current traces from sensitive components, all in order to minimize EMI and noise coupling.

⚡️Proper layer stack-up is important for achieving the desired electrical performance. Most prefer to place the ground plane on the second or third layer in a four-layer board, adjacent to the signal layer and power plane. Ground and power 🔋🔌planes are usually in the middle layers, minimizing interference between high-frequency and noisy lines and the rest of the PCB.

⚡️ If you want to make your life just a tiny bit 🤏 more enjoyable, you should consider thermal relief at the beginning of your board design. Make sure to use traces wide enough when it comes to high-current lines, make them short and direct. Calculate online trace widths and lengths considering the current passing through. Make sure to use thermal relief vias, and if it is still challenging, take a step back and put some heat sinks on those overheating components.

⚡️ Another life hack is to note all the design rules after coordinating them with your PCB manufacturer. I am talking about drill hole sizes, minimum and maximum trace widths, whether the copper is thick enough, component and trace clearances, and everything else you need. Write them down in your software and run a design rule check with one click. It's going to save you from at least two or three new gray hairs. 🥲

⚡️Finally, as a gift 🎁 to your future self, place some test points 🟡 in easily reachable places. Make sure to add mounting holes on the sides of the board, and don't forget the board outline!