Ground planes for low cost boardsGround planes for low cost boards 1 E MAC services Ground planes for low cost boards The ground plane approach is well established for high-value, high-speed digital circuits for which multilayer PCBs are the norm. What is sometimes less appreciated is that it is directly relevant to low-cost analogue circuits as well. Adding a ground plane to a cheap single-sided analogue board is often the single most cost effective change for improving EMC. Despite the encroachment of digital technology, analogue circuits are still widely used for simple, cost-sensitive applications, particularly in the consumer market. Examples are security sensors, timers and residual current detectors. For these products, cost is the driving factor and both component count and assembly time must be kept to a minim……