For best overall performance, place all circuit components on the same side of the circuit board. Place these components as near as practical to the respective LDO pin connections. Place ground return connections to the input and output capacitor, and to the LDO ground pin as close as possible to each other. Use wide, component-side, copper surface for these connections. Using vias and long traces to the input and output capacitors is strongly discouraged and negatively affects system performance. Place a ground reference plane embedded in the PCB or located on the bottom side of the PCB opposite the components. This reference plane provides output voltage accuracy and shields noise. This plane also behaves similar to a thermal plane to spread (or sink) heat from the LDO device when connected to the thermal pad. In most applications, this ground plane is necessary to meet thermal requirements.