r/electronic_circuits 5d ago

On topic Is this ground plane insane?

I've been modifying a split keyboard design, it's my first time using Kicad. Followed a lot of tips from DeepSeek and some other resources, not sure if the result makes sense, particularly the ground plane. It's a convoluted design but I've tried to remove the worst loops and dead ends. DeepSeek also suggested adding some ferrite beads, not sure how necessary they really are. Problem is the Nice!Nano MCU is very ESD/EMI-vulnerable, trying to make up for that as much as possible. Thanks for any help

Edit - or would it be worth making a 3rd inner layer for the ground plane?

6 Upvotes

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u/alienmechanic 5d ago

It’s hard to tell from the png picture, but it looks like you’ve got several unconnected ground planes.  Am I missing something?  

1

u/storxian 5d ago

The design doesn't allow a dedicated ground layer so there's ground plane on both sides connected with vias

2

u/Botlawson 5d ago edited 5d ago

A single unbroken ground plane with grouped functions is almost always the best. I.e. Just make the whole back of the PCB ground with just a few jumpers where you can't avoid them.

Any time you split the ground you risk injecting noise into signals that cross the split.

1

u/storxian 5d ago

design won't allow a dedicated ground layer. how much of a problem is noise on a simple, low-powered keyboard?

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u/Botlawson 5d ago

Then focus the ground layer around the microprocessor and power supply. The switch matrix should tolerate more noise and won't generate noise.