There’s designing a PCB, and then there’s designing a PCB that actually ships, on time, with zero surprises. Ask any hardware team in PCB design and manufacturing, and we are sure they will tell you: the layout phase is where most of the pain begins, or where you save yourself from it. No matter if you have a brilliant schematic, a great idea, and even a well-chosen set of components, if your layout is careless, then you are setting yourself up for headaches down the line.
From DFM slip‑ups to thermal issues, the choices you make in Altium or KiCad today might be exactly why your EMS partner rings you in a panic three weeks down the line. And to save you from that, we have got you this article, where we will take you through five PCB layout best practices and decisions that truly make or break your manufacturing run.
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Component Placement: Not Just About Fitting Things In
Placing components is a bit like city planning, where you can’t just throw things wherever they fit and hope for the best. No! In PCB design and manufacturing, every position matters, every orientation matters, and the way you arrange things has a direct impact on how smoothly the board will be built.
Why it matters:
When you place the components without any thought, the problems will start stacking up. The main reason why this matters is that it influences signal integrity, the soldering quality, and the overall reworkability of the board.
Common Slip-ups:
- Placing high-speed digital and analog sections too close together
- Not keeping a consistent orientation for polarized parts like diodes and LEDs
- Positioning tall or heat-sensitive components near the edges of the board.
That is why it is so important to loop in your EMS partner early to follow these PCB layout best practices. This way, you can get reports about pick‑and‑place machine limitations, wave solder keep‑out zones, and the minimum spacing for inspection. After all, even a single misplaced part can cause tombstoning during assembly.
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Use the Vias Strategy
Vias are far more than just tiny holes on your board! They’re decisions you make, which directly affect the cost, manufacturability, and electrical reliability. In the world of PCB design and manufacturing, every via you choose determines how easy your board will be to build and how well it will perform.
Why it matters:
Each type of via, whether through hole, blind, buried, or via-in-pad, comes with its own implications that one has to deal with. It basically changes the layer count, the number of drill cycles needed, and even how long the plating will take. And what if you picked the wrong combination? That’s when you might find your PCB design and manufacturing costs going up or your boards failing critical electrical tests later on.
Common Slip-ups:
- Putting vias right on a BGA pad without filling them. This is what makes the solder run down the hole, instead of staying where it should.
- Not checking how deep the hole is compared to its width or diameter. Due to this, there can be weak spots.
- Skipping proper covering (tenting) for vias in high voltage areas can expose and cause leaks, which can be very, very dangerous.
So next time you are in doubt, you can stick to standard through-hole vias as your default for PCB layout best practices! Then, if you want to step up to microvias or VIPPO, you can once your design absolutely needs them. And wait! Don’t just finalize your layout without a conversation with your fab house, who can guide you on drill limitations, via filling capabilities, and what will actually run smoothly in production.
These little cautions here can save you from expensive mistakes later on!
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Copper Balancing
Copper pours can play a huge role in how your board behaves. They can affect how flat the board stays, how the heat spreads out, and how evenly the copper gets etched. Now let’s talk about why this matters in the first place, and why you should never avoid giving attention to it!
Why it matters:
If the copper is not balanced well across different layers, the board can start to wrap. And not just this, you might also see layers not lining up properly, or even open circuits appearing during the etching process. These are some of the issues that can seriously hurt your results in PCB design and manufacturing.
Common Slip-ups:
- Having a large copper area on one layer and almost nothing on the layer opposite it
- Running very thin traces right next to big copper pours without leaving enough space
- Forgetting to add thermal reliefs on pads, which makes soldering much harder
Now that you know the common mistakes people make while working with copper, it’s time we give you a fix for it. All you have to do is ask your PCB fab partner to check copper balancing when you’re finalizing your stackup. And don’t think that keeping things symmetrical is just for a clean look, no! This is one of the PCB layout best practices that actually prevents warping and improves yields, especially when you’re working with boards that have four layers or more.
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Clearances & Spacing: Follow IPC… But Know When to Go Beyond
Talking of clearances, one thing is pretty clear: Clearances aren’t just about making your CAD tool happy or passing an ERC check. Rather, they are what keep your board buildable in the real world. In simpler terms, they are the true lifeline in manufacturing.
Why it matters:
If the things are spaced too tightly, you can end up with solder bridging between the pads. And the worst part? There can be unexpected shorts during reflow, or even test probes that simply cannot make a proper contact. Basically, troubleshooting becomes a nightmare because faults will start showing up in places where you least expect them. And then…money gone, time gone!
Common Slip-ups:
- Sticking with the default 6/6 mil trace and space rules without first checking if your fab can actually handle them
- Forgetting that solder mask layers can shift slightly, which can expose copper where you didn’t plan for it
- Placing test points so close to each other or nearby parts that testing becomes unreliable or impossible.
The moral of this point? Even if your CAD tool gives you a green light, it does not mean your fabricator will agree too. So, make sure to always double‑check with your EMS partner or PCB vendor on things like minimum clearances, annular ring sizes, and spacing for test pads for PCB layout best practices. Especially if you think on a big scale, then here is a truth for you: the larger the production volume, the more these details affect the yield and cost.
Thermal Management
What is a good thermal strategy, you ask? Well, it is what can save you from painful rework and last‑minute fixes later on. It is one of those things in your layouts that might not seem urgent while you are routing traces, but can turn into a nightmare as you hit the assembly line.
Why it matters:
When the heat is not handled well, that’s when you get thermal imbalance during soldering. This is when some parts of the board heat up faster than others, leading to bad solder joints, tombstoning, or even components cracking under stress. And no, it is not just one one-time issue during production, but long-term poor heat dissipation that slowly affects how your board performs. Plus, it can dramatically shorten the life of your product.
Common Slip-ups:
- Putting heat‑heavy chips on the board without giving them enough copper to spread the heat out
- Skipping those little thermal vias under power parts that help carry heat away
- Packing too many high‑current traces into one small area, making it a hot spot
Want to know the best part of PCB design and manufacturing? You do not have to play the guessing game on what went wrong or not. You can just talk to your EMS partner early on. Our teams at Karkhana.io can help run thermal simulations or do reflow profiling before you commit to mass production. So, yes, a little planning for PCB layout best practices goes a long way!
Final Thoughts
It’s quite understandable how a neat schematic might look impressive, but no, these PCB layout best practices won’t protect you from layout issues that creep up during production. In fact, in real‑world manufacturing, things like yield, overall cost, and how quickly you can get to market all depend on how good your layout is. As a part of PCB design and manufacturing, we can say it confidently, because at Karkhana.io, we’ve seen it first hand. Tiny tweaks in the layout stage, something as simple as shifting silkscreen markings, adding fiducials for alignment, or fixing the spacing of test points. We have truly saved teams weeks of delay and lakhs that would’ve been lost to scrap or rework.
And yes, it is easy to design something that works for a handful of prototypes on your workbench. But imagine designing something that can be built at scale, over and over again, without any issues. Sounds like a dream? We make it real!
