Oliver Smith

Oliver is an experienced electronics engineer skilled in PCB design, analog circuits, embedded systems, and prototyping. His deep knowledge spans schematic capture, firmware coding, simulation, layout, testing, and troubleshooting. Oliver excels at taking projects from concept to mass production using his electrical design talents and mechanical aptitude.

Do I have to protect PCB from radio frequency reflection?

I am designing a system on megahertz frequency bands (~ 400-1000MHz.) This device is connected to a variable antenna which does not necessarily stay in match with the circuit so there will be some reflection of the power back to the circuit. The feeding power would not be more than 0dBm at maximum. Do I ever need to take care of the reflections at all?

How can I electrically isolate a PCB from a heat sink?

I have a set of LED driving lights for motorcycle that must be wired through a ground-leg pulse width modulation dimmer. The problem is the mounting bracket for the lights is grounded, so the lamp shorts to ground through the motorcycle chassis and the PWM dimmer cant dim the lamps. How do I handle this problem?

What will be the role of a copper layer in a metal core PCB in thermal dissipation?

In the design of a power electronic PCB, I want to use a metal PCB for heat dissipation of a TO-220 package MOSFET. To do that I want to mount metal PCB on the MOSFET with the use of thermal paste and screw exactly like we do when we use heatsink for the same package. Should I leave the copper of PCB between MOSFET surface and dielectric of PCB or remove the copper surface and leave only the dielectric opening?

Are there any standard materials used to cover PCB SMT pads?

I have a PCB that was poorly designed and there is a ground pad that is too close to a signal pad. As a result, the signal pad on the surface mount component will short to ground. I was looking to use some ink or other material to cover the ground pad. The pads are too small to fit Kapton tape. Are there any standard materials used to cover PCB SMT pads?

How much larger should a plated-through hole be than lead diameter to get good solder wetting?

I’m designing a new PCB where I have a whack of connectors that have to line up with the metalwork. There are some problematic connectors. All 4 pins are round. I want to have the holes as small as possible while allowing for good solder adhesion over the full length of the pin. I’m looking for guidance on how much clearance around the component lead I should have in order to get good solder wetting and adhesion.

How can I connect my small PCB with sensor to the bigger PCB?

My small PCB is mounting a very sensitive fragile sensor on the top surface that has to be wire bonded to the PCB, so I am trying to design a smaller PCB that can be surface mounted to the bigger PCB. How can I get some kind of thin footprint for interconnecting the two PCB boards?

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