Why cutouts for these inductors?

[lpc32]

Any idea why L2 and L4 sit in cutouts on this cordless phone board? There are no space constraints.

[free_electron]

because they are reflow soldered. or becaus ethey can;t have pins poking out the back

[TSL]

Hi,

These are tiny wire wound inductors and if they had no cutout, the copper plane would affect their value. Its not unusual to etch clear space under SMD inductors to ensure the copper plane does not affect their value too.

Also, given their thickness they may have violated a height constraint inside the case so setting them in the plane of the board lowers their profile. Also a common technique.

regards

Tim

[mazurov]

Or because it's faster to solder this way :-).

[IconicPCB]

Thes are higher current axial chokes. I have seen them blow and take out chunks of PCB directly beneath them. I suspect this way a blown choke will do minimal damage to the surrounding component ( the PCB ).

[T3sl4co1l]

Interesting, seem to be 1.5uH if I'm reading that right?  On each charge pin?  Sounds like EMI/RFI, either to isolate and filter the base, or to keep the handset's antenna from getting too screwed up by the connection.

They are most definitely hand soldered -- only the most offensive globby crusty job will do!

Tim

[lpc32]

There are a few thruholes with pins poking out the back, so I don't think that's the issue. But even without going thru, why would this require a cutout? Or if you mean what mazurov said, that it's easier to solder, I assume because the leads are straight, then maybe. It's an interesting idea, but wouldn't it be even quicker if they were just plain thruhole? The board's not single-sided, and anyway, can't you just drill thru a pad?

You can just etch the copper where they are, which it appears they did anyway. There are no height constraints in these locations.

Assuming they can explode, why would the manufacturer care what sort of damage they do?

One thing they did on this board, which I hate, is solder wires just flatly on a pad. Why would anyone want to do that? Wouldn't it just make it more time consuming for them to assemble?

[albert22]

My guess is that they designed the board for another type/brand of inductors that required the cutout. And then used the ones that were available.