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Component Placement on PCB
General component placement guidelines.
As the first rule of placement keep connected components close to each other. While placing components, make sure you flip and rotate your components so that they fit closely on board. If you use design tool like Or-CAD layout, it will provide you ratsnests which will show you how parts interconnect. This will make placement of parts easy. It is always good idea to start placement of big components like microcontrollers or ICs first and then place support components line capacitors and resistors around them.
If your board has connectors which supposed to connect to outside world from board, it will be good idea to place these connectors at edges of board so that they are easily accessible. Examples are power connectors, RS232 ports and USB ports. Also it will be good idea to keep about 1mm or 40mils space between components and about 2mm or 80mil space form component to board edge. Finally remember about decupling capacitors and place them close as much as possible to active components like microcontrollers and ICs. Usually these capacitors are 100nF ceramic capacitors and play very important role in noise suppression. It is useless to place these capacitors away from active components. These capacitors prevent injecting noise in to boards power supply by active components, which if does, will screw up other components optimal operation.
Continue reading for routing guidelines.
