What a heavy ground and star ground systems are?

[ragnarok]

Hi, i have a question:

In the SLA7062, says:

Layout.
The printed wirting board should use a heavy ground
plane.
......
Grounding.
A star ground system located close to the
driver is recommended. The logic supply return and the
driver supply return should be connected together at only a
single point — the star ground.
......

I have a little idea of what heavy ground
plane is, can some one tell me what a star ground system is?

Thanks

 

[centiago]

Re: Heavy Ground PCB

I assume you are making Single/Double side PCB.

You require heavy ground if the power handling is going to high. (Not needed if you are designing multilayer board). Make sure you thicken the from IC power & GND Pins to the respective planes.

Star grounding is required to
1> Avoid the formation of loop current in the circuit.
2> Reduce the lead inductance.

Hope my replies addresses your concern.

Good luck.


In the SLA7062, says:

Layout.
The printed wirting board should use a heavy ground
plane.
......
Grounding.
A star ground system located close to the
driver is recommended. The logic supply return and the
driver supply return should be connected together at only a
single point — the star ground.
......

I have a little idea of what heavy ground
plane is, can some one tell me what a star ground system is?

 

[edison]

Re: Heavy Ground PCB

Refering to the SLA7062 datasheet: https://www.techkits.com/#sla7062

The two sense resistors go from pins 5 & 17 to GND at pin 11. The pc board traces for these two paths will carry a lot of current (up to 3 Amps). These traces to GND should be separate from all other traces to GND. (Also the Vref signal on Pin 7 goes through a potentiometer to GND. This GND connection back to pin 11 also needs to be a separate trace) This is basically what is meant by a star grounding.

On a typical PC board without star grounding, you can have a main GND trace (or layer) and anytime you need a GND connection, you simply connect to this trace (or layer) at a convenient spot. But in star grounding, certain signals need to each have a separate pc board trace going back to a single spot. These special signals cannot share a common GND trace.

Hope this helps.
LNS Technologies