topic Re: Creating trace antenna from smd pads in Fusion Electronics Forum

Creating trace antenna from smd pads

corsmeierkevin — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 20:43:54 GMT

Hello, I was just wondering how this antenna design would play out. I created a symbol for the antenna, and have created the desired dimensions/shape using smd pads for the foot print. I was just wondering how I might ensure that this is covered with soldermask/ treated like a route on the actual board. I deselected the soldermask option when clicking on properties of the footprint for each placed pad when creating the footprint. It looks like there is no longer the grey hatched area signifying that solder mask should be applied over it, however when pushing to a 3d pcb, it appears the pads are above the layer of soldermask. My quesiton, is this something that I can ignore and solder mask will be applied over it and the traces connecting? or is there some method I should be changing the thickness of the pads to match that of the routes to it? New to fusion electronics so any help is greatly appreciated. Attaching pics for reference of layout view and 3d pcb view.

Re: Creating trace antenna from smd pads

jorge_garcia — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 23:07:41 GMT

Hi @corsmeierkevin,

Excellent question, the 2D PCB is the ultimate source of truth. As long as your antenna doesn't have any features on the TopSoldermask layer they will be covered. The 3D PCB just doesn't reflect the stopmask correctly in this case, it can be safely ignored.

I'll report this anyway since that copper should be covered.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: Creating trace antenna from smd pads

corsmeierkevin — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 00:20:08 GMT

Thank you for the quick response. This is good to know!

Best,

Kevin