Note by mod: This was attached at the end of a very old only vaguely connected topic so it got split off for increased clarity.
Did you have any success with this?
I’m planing to design a small board with only 3 or 4 SMD componentets and I’d like to place them in through-holes so the resulting board is still flat
Shure, works like a charm. Make shure to pick your components with respect to board thickness and dont use vias. Obviously the hole has to be large enough but not too large to make soldering easier.
This is quite a old technique used for example in RF designs to get parasitic inductance down.
Aren’t through holes plated through?
Depends what you understand under Through Hole, a via will certainly not work a NPT will.
Is it possible to create the holes using the components footprint or do I have to create them (and the connections on the edges) manually?
I guess you can place a npth in a footprint, create a top and a bottom footprint (each). Sounds feasible to me. However, maximum length is limited to 1,6mm or so, that are only small components.
If you succeed in this technology, drop an article to hackaday…
As far as i know there is no standard footprint for that, but you can create a footprint with a pad on the top and one on the bottom layer and a NPT in its middle.
Have a look at this thread, it might help you create what you want.
How you deal with the edges is up to your setup. If you’re on a two layer board i would risk teared copper on the edge and push the copper all the way to it, but be sure to check with your board supplier so they are aware.
done it before, works fine, main thing is you really do have to make it clear without a doubt that this is what you want, most board houses will treat any hole that touches copper as a plated hole
in later revisions I always made sure the copper did not intersect the NPTH, with custom circle pads on top and bottom.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.