Ground pour on PCB in PCB Design - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Ground pour on PCB

Goal

Understand how ground pour areas affect PCB design quality and performance.

Sample Data: PCB Ground Pour Metrics

Layer	Ground Pour Area (cm²)	Number of Vias	Signal Noise (mV)	Thermal Dissipation (W)
Top	25	15	5	1.2
Inner 1	30	20	4	1.5
Inner 2	28	18	4.5	1.3
Bottom	22	12	6	1.1
Overall	105	65	4.875	5.1

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Ground Pour Area
  Formula: Sum of 'Ground Pour Area (cm²)' column = 25 + 30 + 28 + 22 = 105 cm²
  Shows total copper area used for ground pour across layers.
• KPI Card: Average Signal Noise
  Formula: Average of 'Signal Noise (mV)' excluding Overall = (5 + 4 + 4.5 + 6) / 4 = 4.875 mV
  Indicates average noise level on PCB layers.
• Bar Chart: Ground Pour Area by Layer
  X-axis: Layer
  Y-axis: Ground Pour Area (cm²)
  Shows how ground pour area varies per layer.
• Line Chart: Signal Noise vs Number of Vias
  X-axis: Number of Vias
  Y-axis: Signal Noise (mV)
  Shows relationship between vias and noise.
• Table: Thermal Dissipation per Layer
  Columns: Layer, Thermal Dissipation (W)
  Shows heat dissipation per PCB layer.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
| Total Ground Pour     | Average Signal Noise  |
| Area (KPI)           | (KPI)                |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|                      Bar Chart: Ground Pour Area                      |
|                              by Layer                               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Line Chart: Signal Noise vs Number of Vias | Table: Thermal Dissipation |
|                                           | per Layer                 |
+-------------------------------------------+---------------------------+

Interactivity

Filter by Layer: Selecting a specific layer updates all components to show data only for that layer.

Example: Selecting 'Top' layer updates KPIs to show ground pour area and signal noise for Top layer only, updates bar chart to highlight Top layer, updates line chart and table accordingly.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Layer = 'Inner 1', which components update?

• KPI Cards show ground pour area and signal noise for Inner 1 only.
• Bar chart highlights Inner 1 layer.
• Line chart shows signal noise vs number of vias for Inner 1.
• Thermal dissipation table shows value for Inner 1.

Key Result

Dashboard shows ground pour area, signal noise, vias, and thermal dissipation across PCB layers.