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Tamara Jovanovic is an electrical engineer with Masimo, a medical equipment manufacturer. She’s been designing PCBs for seven years and earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 2022. I asked Tamara to share her thoughts on floor planning—the challenges, techniques, and advice for designers setting up floor planning strategies.
Andy Shaughnessy: What is the objective of floor planning during PCB design?
Tamara Jovanovic: For any new circuit board design, the floor planning step typically occurs when the schematic is finalized (or nearly finalized) and before layout and routing begin. The objective of floor planning is to ensure that what you're designing is most optimized from the signal integrity perspective—ESD/EMI, as well as mechanical and thermal.
The idea is to place large components on the circuit board first, especially those that interact with mechanical features of the design and to isolate noise sensitivity on the board. This process is typically carried out by the PCB design engineer in collaboration with a mechanical engineer, using design tools to place components and align/mate them with mechanical elements, as well as to make sure there is enough separation for sensitive signals that need proper isolation/grounding.
Shaughnessy: What factors figure into the floor planning process?
Jovanovic: First and foremost, designers need to make sure that they're choosing components that will fit in the final product's mechanical enclosure and on the board shape previously agreed upon. It's also important to have an early plan for the board's layer stackup, or how many layers the board shall have and what each layer will be designated for (i.e., signal or power/ground).
Most of the time, the first components that are placed on the board are main design elements such as main processors and power ICs, which often require special design considerations and proper thermal management. Next, we have components that carry sensitive signals, such as clocks, crystals and RF parts. Those usually require careful handling when it comes to grounding and impedance, so it's always good practice to plan their placement early and ensure they are properly isolated.
To continue reading this interview, which originally appeared in the August 2025 edition of Design007 Magazine, click here.
