
A PCB or Printed Circuit Board is the major functional component in many electronic devices as it supports and connects the overall system with various other electronic parts. These PCB boards are often used in the electronic gadgets like smartphones, medical equipment, and computers. One of the primary aspects while designing the PCBs is the cross-hatching which is a robust designing technique applied in the board’s power planes or ground in a grid-like pattern. This looks like a lattice unlike the solid a sheet of a solid copper sheet which greatly helps in managing issues like heat, flexibility, and material usage. Hence, this blog explains the essential things about cross-hatching.
What Is PCB Cross-Hatching?
A cross-hatching is a design technique placed in a criss-cross or mesh-like pattern instead of solid copper area in PCB. This technique greatly helps in the following ways,
- The cross-hatching reduces the copper weight significantly in the PCB board. It is because in many PCB high-frequency designs the solid copper sheet offers additional stress on the board due to the fluctuations in the temperature. Hence, with the help of cross-hatching the overall weight of the copper is reduced to a certain extent without compromising the power plane’s integrity.
- In addition, the PCB cross-hatching greatly helps in improving the overall flexibility. In PCB development, the boards are often twisted or bent, which causes stress over the solid sheet of copper. However, with the help of cross-hatching the board becomes more flexible by reducing the copper amount being stressed or compressed. Hence, this method greatly helps in preventing the cracks.
Benefits Of Using PCB Cross-Hatching Design:
- The PCB cross-hatching greatly helps in controlling the impedance in the flex region. The flex region refers to the flexible region which is bent or twisted during the development allowing the PCB to fit into the intended space. Hence, the cross-hatching controls the impedance in the flex region in the high-speed digital circuits to ensure signal integrity and minimise signal loss or distortion.
- The cross-hatching provides exceptional structural integrity by providing robust support for the static or dynamic flex ribbons without the need for the increase of copper layer. Also, cross-hatching helps in retaining the flexibility of the system without disturbing the impedance routing.
- The cross-hatching offers versatility for manufactures as it can be applied both on flex PCBs and rigid-flex as per the required dimensions. Also, this design allows the manufacturers to apply the planes on the inner layer with the copper fillings on the outer layer.
- Finally, this design technique greatly helps in flexibility as it allows the manufacturers to remove a larger percentage of copper from the board.
OrCAD X For Smart Cross-Hatching Design:
Dynamic Cross-hatch Shapes:
The OrCAD X helps you to create a robust cross-hatch design especially to avoid the cracks when the PCB board is bent or twisted. Moreover, these designs can also be used in the main boards as well.
Settings And Parameters:
Secondly, the manufactures and PCB designers can significantly configure or set the parameters or patterns for the cross-hatching design. The settings for the cross-hatching includes the width adjustments, and the spacing between the hatch pattern so that it can fit seamlessly into the specific design.
Shape Creation:
OrCAD X allows you to choose the shapes like polygon, rectangle, or circle for the cross-hatching design. In addition, the cross-hatching design automatically updates for the pins, pathways, and any component is added to the design unlike the static cross-hatching where every update has to be done manually.
Layering:
With the help of OrCAD X cross-hatching design, manufacturers or PCB designers can easily assign the layers or pathways within the PCB board. Hence, this approach ensures that the cross-hatch pattern is appropriately applied in the respective region.
PCB cross-hatching is a versatile design technique that offers various advantages for different applications, especially flexible circuits and high-frequency designs. Sunstream can be an ideal partner for such advanced solutions in PCB design services to enhance your application performance, reduce costs, and improve durability.