I’m trying to place embedded components into a 6 layer PCB. The components will have the size of the inner core and will be contacted by microvias.
The component pads would end up in layer 3 (component “top”) and layer 4 (component “bottom”) as shown in this picuture:
My first try in KiCad was to define the embedded component footprint like any other device, but there is no possibility to define copper pads on the inner layers. As a work-around I defined the pad geometry (layer 3 and layer 4) in the user layers.
But this means that I have to draw each pad in the layout manually and assign it to a net by hand.
My question is now: is such an “component embedding” feature planned for KiCad or do you see any workaround which I could use?
Thanks
Remark:
I already found an older discussion about this topic but I did not see any progress there. That’s why I opened a new discussion here.
This is a very niche application, and there are many feature requests and idea’s posted on gitlab, so it’s unlikely this will get implemented anytime soon, unless someone (or company) is willing to sponsor some custom development at https://www.kipro-pcb.com/
As far as I know, there is no way to put SMT pads on inner layers via the GUI, but if you edit a footprint with a text editor, you can put pads on an inner layer, and they tend to stay there. So, (assuming this still works, ) you can modify the footprint once, and then connect tracks to it without further modification.
So this leaves the depth milling, or other method to make room inside the PCB for those parts. That is another task to solve.
I think that this is still waiting for proper flexi PCB support by KiCad, which is a bit related to this.
Flexis bonded to a small PCB are a far more common requirement
There already exists a feature request for this topic, which you can upvote. You will need to sign up for gitlab (not github) first, but I think this is a good idea anyway and is a pretty low bar to contribute to KiCad.
