CircuitHub - Recommended footprints for discrete components

Placing discrete components literally 24/7 means we see a huge variety of footprint variations. Poorly designed footprints can cause components can cause “head-in-pillow” and “tombstone” defects, amongst other issues.

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Photo courtesy of Worthington. This is what a "Head-In-Pillow" defect looks like. Notice how the right side isn't actually wetted to the component.

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Photo courtesy of Worthington. This is what a "Tombstone" defect looks like. It might be hard to notice at first, but the pad on the left has the 0201 capacitor standing straight up in the air.

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Our partners at Worthington have kindly shared with us recommended 0201 (0603 Metric), 0402 (1005 Metric), 0603 (1608 Metric), and 0805 (2012 Metric) footprints that have proven to work best with our assembly processes. The most critical aspect of the design is the gap between the pads. Feel free to adjust the overall size of the pad as you see fit for your product needs.

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