Thermal relief spoke width

[difflvl]

Hi,

For a thermal relief to a ground plane, would a small spoke width of .1mm constitute a bad ground connection? What is the recommended standard?

Altium designer defaults to .254mm, but when I look at the boards that I got fab-ed they look more like .1mm, very thin. Coincidentally im having some compatibility problems with that board from one platform to another. Is it likely that its the poor spoke width?

Thanks

 

[s.venkatesh]

Hi,
For a thermal relief to a ground plane, The spoke width of 0.38mm(15 mils) constitute a better ground connection.

thanks

 

[Rame]

Hi,

In addition to that care should be taken to ensure that plane areas do not get isolated after thermal relief pads are placed and etched.i would say spoke thickness min 8 mil to max 15 mil is ideal depending upon the complexity of the board.


Regards

Ramesh

 

[cyberrat]

Also take care not to completely unbalance the connections to a 2 terminal SMT component otherwise it may tombstone.