There are two key system-level parameters that can be addressed with a proper PCB design: electrical and thermal performance. Properly optimizing the PCB layout yields maximum performance in both areas. A brief description on how to address each parameter is provided.

7.1 Electrical Performance

The power block has the ability to switch voltages at rates greater than 10 kV/µs. Special care must be then taken with the PCB layout design and placement of the input capacitors, driver IC, and output inductor.

• The placement of the input capacitors relative to the power block’s VIN and PGND pins should have the highest priority during the component placement routine. It is critical to minimize these node lengths. As such, ceramic input capacitors need to be placed as close as possible to the VIN and PGND pins (see Figure 21). The example in Figure 21 uses 6 × 10-µF ceramic capacitors (TDK part number C3216X5R1C106KT or equivalent). Notice there are ceramic capacitors on both sides of the board with an appropriate amount of vias interconnecting both layers. In terms of priority of placement next to the power block, C5, C7, C19, and C8 should follow in order.
• The driver IC should be placed relatively close to the power block gate pins. T_G and B_G should connect to the outputs of the driver IC. The T_GR pin serves as the return path of the high-side gate drive circuitry and should be connected to the phase pin of the IC (sometimes called LX, LL, SW, PH, and so forth). The bootstrap capacitor for the driver IC will also connect to this pin.
• The switching node of the output inductor should be placed relatively close to the power block VSW pins. Minimizing the node length between these two components will reduce the PCB conduction losses and actually reduce the switching noise level.⁽¹⁾ In the event the switch node waveform exhibits ringing that reaches undesirable levels, the use of a boost resistor or RC snubber can be an effective way to easily reduce the peak ring level. The recommended boost resistor value will range between 1 Ω to 4.7 Ω depending on the output characteristics of driver IC used in conjunction with the power block. The RC snubber values can range from 0.5 Ω to 2.2 Ω for the R and 330 pF to 2200 pF for the C. Please refer to Snubber Circuits: Theory, Design and Application (SLUP100) for more details on how to properly tune the RC snubber values. The RC snubber should be placed as close as possible to the Vsw node and PGND (see Figure 21). ⁽¹⁾