Hi Friends,
Could anyone please explain me why Ground strips are implemented at the edges of the PCB especially in a module that is to be inserted into a chassis.
I can understand that, i could eliminate the components being placed at the edges, apart from this is there any other reasons?
It could be that the copper gives the guides something more solid to grasp instead of bare fiberglass or phenolic. It also could be a grounding point. Or, as you say, it prevents a designer from placing components where guides will slide.
Bit of a generalisation, as it is not always the case, but historically for eurocard rack mounted cards it was because of the lack of number of layers, often on a 2 layer board you would have power on one layer ground on the opposite...
To prevent components near card guards keep out areas are better option as the outline of a component could overhand the ground strip and not cause an error....
In some instances cards go into metal guides and the ground strips are to make a connection, I would not worry to much about it and look at every job on its own merits.
It is provided generally with solder mask open to short it with metal housing, so that the PCB chasis ground id shorted with system ground.
This bypasses the ESD to system ground.