Electronics > KiCad

Voltage divider: from schematic to PCB layout

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newtekuser:
On the resistor divider setup in the schematic attached, KiCAD allows me to connect R2 and R3 with pin5 in any of the configurations from the screenshots below. If I connect the tracks according to the schematic, I go with the third option from my last screenshot, but gut feeling tells me it's not the proper way of connecting tracks mid-point.

Can someone please confirm which form is acceptable/standard practice and which one is the proper way of connecting this resistor voltage divider (first, second, or third)?

Thanks in advance!

wraper:
Neither look good and layout provides very poor cooling for the IC. You should provide a larger snippet of the layout since voltage divider does not live in a vacuum. All of the layout is important, in particular how you arrange everything and from where to tap for feedback.

WillTurner:
  I think you are worrying about something very minor in the larger scheme of things! There might be some design areas like precision electronics where you would be worrying about star-grounds and stuff, or like the previous poster said, power dissipation. I don't think these special areas will affect your design at this point.
  So, what we are talking about is stylistic variation? I wonder whether there are documents out there telling us what design styles are acceptable. On the other hand, you can try different things, come up with your own unique style, use some common sense, and most of all ... have fun  :)

Edit: Also, I can see that you put a fair bit of work into your post. More than enough detail there for me to understand the issue.
 

newtekuser:
Thanks all! So all three choices will work in terms of a functional circuit? Aesthetically I prefer the first two over the last one with the mid point track connection.

SiliconWizard:
Yes as said above, the rest of the layout, which we don't see, is more important than this. Usually.

I'll just add a small something though, while we're at it, about feedback for regulators, in particular switching regulators. When using high resistance values (which is your case here), the feedback potential will be susceptible to external noise.
First, make sure such high values are *required* (for instance, for power consumption reasons if your design is very-low power), otherwise consider decreasing these values significantly. If power consumption requirements allow, dividing them by up to a 10 factor would not be a bad idea.

After that, the layout part *may* itself matter, and not for aesthetic reasons. The proximity of the feedback resistors with the inductor, for instance, with these high values, may cause accuracy or stabiliy issues in the output voltage.
Where does your +5V rail come from? If it may be noisy, then coupling to the feedback input could be an issue, and if you can't again decrease the value of the feedback resistors, routing the +5V trace differently and having some ground filling between it and the feedback input resistor (R3) may help.

Long story short: the 3 alternatives you showed would not make any difference, but there's still a couple of things to say about feedback voltages. Just my 2 cents.


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