Mercury
Member level 3
Hi guys,
I'm strugling through the IPC-7351 standard and there is one thing (well, many actually) that bugs me. The component courtyard is defined as: "Courtyard – The smallest rectangular area that provides a minimum electrical and mechanical clearance (courtyard excess) around the combined component body and land pattern boundaries."
OK, great, but what is it used for? To me it would seem that this is the area in which no other component (or part of it) can be placed. But this is not true. Take a look at a TQFP 48 footprint. You can easily put a 0402 resistor into one of it's corners (I've done that plenty of times)
So can anyone explain it to me, why exactly are courtyards used for?
George
I'm strugling through the IPC-7351 standard and there is one thing (well, many actually) that bugs me. The component courtyard is defined as: "Courtyard – The smallest rectangular area that provides a minimum electrical and mechanical clearance (courtyard excess) around the combined component body and land pattern boundaries."
OK, great, but what is it used for? To me it would seem that this is the area in which no other component (or part of it) can be placed. But this is not true. Take a look at a TQFP 48 footprint. You can easily put a 0402 resistor into one of it's corners (I've done that plenty of times)
So can anyone explain it to me, why exactly are courtyards used for?
George