topic Re: PCB trace finish material in EAGLE Forum

PCB trace finish material

NikosAntoniou — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 14:36:57 GMT

Dear all,

I want to know whether or not there is any option in Eagle to specify the trace finish material. I design a board that will carry RF signals and some of the traces as well as the SMA connectors pads needs to be gold plated.

In case that Eagle don't support that feature, how to I specify this detail to my manufacturer?

Thanks in advance

Re: PCB trace finish material

AutodeskEagleCad — Thu, 27 Dec 2018 16:13:33 GMT

The entire board will need to be gold plated. Many board houses can do this for you, but not all.

Re: PCB trace finish material

NikosAntoniou — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 05:58:31 GMT

Thank you for your reply!!

So I can use ENIG finish and for each pad or trace I want to be gold plated I draw a polygon in either tstop or bstop layer?

Re: PCB trace finish material

Andreas.Schimke — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 08:43:00 GMT

Hello @NikosAntoniou,

first of all you should check with your board house if they can produce a pcb with two different surface options.

The generation of data for the board house is easy (as usual you have several options, I will explain one of them):

1. Generate a new layer with the name of your surface finish option

2. Mark with a polygon, or rectangle or... the area which should have a different surface finish

3. Generate a separate gerber file for this layer

4. Explain your board house the meaning of the gerber file from step 3

Regards,

Andreas

Re: PCB trace finish material

AutodeskEagleCad — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 08:44:34 GMT

I would just make everything gold plated.

It's popular and not as expensive as you'd think. But not every board house can do it.