Ground pour on PCB in PCB Design - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a PCB design engineer working on a new electronic product.

📋 Request: Your manager wants you to analyze the impact of ground pour areas on signal integrity and EMI performance in the PCB design. They want a report showing how different ground pour sizes affect noise levels and signal quality.

📊 Data: You have PCB layout data showing ground pour areas in square millimeters, measured noise levels in millivolts, and signal quality scores from 1 to 10 for 10 different PCB prototypes.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a dashboard report that visualizes the relationship between ground pour size, noise level, and signal quality. Include calculated measures for average noise and average signal quality by ground pour size category.

Sample Data

Prototype	GroundPourSize_mm2	NoiseLevel_mV	SignalQuality
PCB1	50	12	7
PCB2	75	9	8
PCB3	100	7	9
PCB4	50	13	6
PCB5	75	10	7
PCB6	100	6	9
PCB7	50	14	5
PCB8	75	8	8
PCB9	100	5	10
PCB10	50	15	5

1

Step 1: Create a new column 'GroundPourCategory' to group ground pour sizes into three categories: Small (<=50), Medium (51-75), Large (>=76).

GroundPourCategory = IF(GroundPourSize_mm2 <= 50, "Small", IF(GroundPourSize_mm2 <= 75, "Medium", "Large"))

Expected Result

Prototypes PCB1, PCB4, PCB7, PCB10 are 'Small'; PCB2, PCB5, PCB8 are 'Medium'; PCB3, PCB6, PCB9 are 'Large'.

2

Step 2: Calculate average noise level for each GroundPourCategory.

AverageNoise = AVERAGE(NoiseLevel_mV) grouped by GroundPourCategory

Expected Result

Small: 13.5 mV, Medium: 9 mV, Large: 6 mV

3

Step 3: Calculate average signal quality for each GroundPourCategory.

AverageSignalQuality = AVERAGE(SignalQuality) grouped by GroundPourCategory

Expected Result

Small: 5.75, Medium: 7.67, Large: 9.33

4

Step 4: Create a bar chart showing GroundPourCategory on X-axis and AverageNoise on Y-axis.

Bar chart config: X=GroundPourCategory, Y=AverageNoise

Expected Result

Bar heights: Small=13.5, Medium=9, Large=6

5

Step 5: Create a line chart showing GroundPourCategory on X-axis and AverageSignalQuality on Y-axis.

Line chart config: X=GroundPourCategory, Y=AverageSignalQuality

Expected Result

Line points: Small=5.75, Medium=7.67, Large=9.33

6

Step 6: Combine both charts in a dashboard with clear titles and legends. Add a summary text box explaining the trends.

Dashboard layout: Bar chart and line chart side by side, summary text below

Expected Result

Dashboard shows noise decreases and signal quality increases as ground pour size increases.

Final Result

Bar Chart: Avg Noise

↓

Line Chart: Avg Signal Quality

✓Noise level decreases as ground pour size increases.

✓Signal quality improves with larger ground pour areas.

✓Medium and Large ground pours show significant performance benefits over Small.

Bonus Challenge

Add a filter to the dashboard to view data by prototype or by ground pour size range dynamically.

Show Hint

Use slicers or dropdown filters in your BI tool to let users select prototypes or ground pour categories.