Hello all,

I am currently working on a very interesting board which has quite a few
high current carrying tracks (around 10A). The scheme suggested by the
engineer is to have the planes on the outer layers (for EMC reasons) and the
tracking on the inner layers. There are surface mount components on both
sides.

Is EMC performance improved by having planes on outer layers? Are there any
problems are associated with mounting surface mount parts on 2oz copper
pads? Can I have 2oz copper as inner layer? All the trace width calculators
I have seen use copper weight for the calculations, but PCB manufacturers
often talk of "plating up" and "finished weight" presumably this it not the
same as 2oz of copper - any advice?

My view is I could get a more complete plane using the inner layers (because
of the surface mount pads) and I am concerned that high current tracks on
the inner layer, being much wider than if the were on the outer layers, may
be difficult to route.

Any advice or comments on the above would be most appreciated!

Regards,

Mark.

Mark Holmes