High-Speed PCB design with KiCad – Tech Explorations

Design a professional high-speed computer carrier board using KiCad.

Learn how to design a professional, high-speed computer carrier board from the ground up using KiCad. The project is based on the LattePanda Mu, a powerful Intel N100 compute module, and you’ll build a fully functional custom carrier board that brings out its interfaces — USB, HDMI, Ethernet, GPIOs, and power — into standard connectors.

Course Content

Preparation 7 Lectures

Section Content

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The carrier board reference design

010 – Course overview and objectives

030 – What are we designing in this course?

050 – A quick introduction to high-speed PCB design

055 – Learning high-speed design with LattePanda Mu reference design

056 – A primer on high-speed PCB design

057 – The course project repository

Schematic design 32 Lectures

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060 – Setup the new KiCad project

080 – Setup the schematic editor

085 – Setup grid and avoid my mistakes

090 – Create the hierarchical sheets

100.1 – LattePanda Mu schematic sheet – start

100.2 – LattePanda Mu schematic sheet – pull downs

100.3 – LattePanda Mu schematic sheet – hierarchical labels

100.4 – LattePanda Mu schematic sheet – hierarchical labels expose to root sheet

100.5 – LattePanda Mu schematic sheet – On sheet documentation

110.1 – Power Supply Unit, introduction

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Layout design 53 Lectures

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200 – PCB layers count considerations

210.1 – Layout walk-around

210.2 – Layout editor setup and basic configuration

220.1 – Layout – Board outline and import components

220.2 – Layout – Set missing footprints and import to layout

230.1 – Layout – Impedance and stack-up calculations

230.2 – Layout – Impedance and stack-up calculations

230.3 – Layout – Impedance and stack-up calculations

235 – Layout – Component placement and routing considerations

240 – Layout-Routing plan

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Manufacturing and assembly updates 13 Lectures

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361 – Assembly BOM update

365 – While I wait things to improve

370 – Assembly BOM update 2

380 – Engineering questions and answers Part 1

381 – Engineering questions and answers Part 2

385 – Manufacturing and assembly status

400 – Board received and bug found

410 – Repair attempt and further troubleshooting

420 – Remove U15 and U16 from custom and reference board ahead of repairs

430 – Repair custom board with new buck converters

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