Rounded-corner pads are cool.
U9 was throwing clearance errors with reasonable limits, but a bit of rounding fixed it. It's easy to do in PADS.
Good for high voltages, too.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc lunatic fringe electronics
It would seem this is your first time at the rodeo. Rounded pads are the default when I lay out boards. I don't even use a fancy, dancy package. I use FreePCB. Works great and it just works.
-- Rick C. - Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
I suppose one's taste is a matter of past experience. In the really old days, with Bishop tapes, rounded pads were standard. But after decades of rectangular pads, I only use the rounded form when needed for clearance, when near high voltages, or if a component's datasheet makes a point about it. It still feels uncomfortable.
--
Thanks,
- Win
Welcome to 1983?
A lot of packages draw soldermask as a direct expansion of the pad shape. Which means square pads beget square mask openings. This is bad for web widths, especially around QF{N|P}s. Even a token 5% or whatever rounding, is usually adequate to trick it into using a correctly rounded mask opening and the problem goes away. But 20-50% rounding looks better.
I've seen square mask openings cause accidental exposed copper on nearby traces. That's just retarded.
Tim
-- Seven Transistor Labs, LLC Electrical Engineering Consultation and Design
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