New (old) subject... grounding...

I have worked on a lot of boards in my career... many had split planes,
circuit isolation schemes, and various odd grounding schemes... I don't
think I have had a single board ever fail due to grounding issues...

The thing I want to really get my arms around though is at the system level
ground. The overall scheme seems critical to me and it's not really obvious
the impacts of certain approaches to solving it and how to hedge your bet so
that it is successful regardless of what option you choose.

We are currently using a 'Mecca or Star Ground' system on a product with
multiple boards and internal power conversion and conditioning that I hear
has some advantages and I suspect also some disadvantages as well... what
they are all remains to be seen.

Is there someone on this forum that really understands system level
grounding enough to prevent crosstalk between boards and peripherals and
also prevent the generation of EMI issues? What level of protection and what
kind of protection is reasonable?

He technologies that are employed are audio circuits, digital synthesis
circuits, OCXO's and distributed system clocks,  High speed DACs, RF
equipment, data buses.. well, there's just about one of every type of
circuit I can think of in there...

How would you approach the grounding scheme on a system like that?
What issues would you be concerned about? What things would you do to
prevent having problems? Which scheme would give you the best performance
and which would be the least expensive? What would be something somewhere in
between that would work well but not be overly costly?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Best regards,

Bill Brooks
PCB Design Engineer, C.I.D.+
Tel: (760)597-1500 Fax: (760)597-1510
Datron World Communications, Inc.
Vista, California

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