Power Low Voltage: 0.1524mm clearance and 1.0mm trace width.Power High Voltage: 0.8382mm clearance and 1.0mm trace width.Low Power Low Voltage: 0.1524mm clearance and 0.381mm trace width.High Voltage: 0.8383mm clearance and 0.381mm trace width.Default: 0.1524mm clearance and 0.381mm trace width.For this design, five net classes were defined. 10.5cm^2 Footprint Step 1: Minimize spacing with Design Rules Net Class definitionsīy setting up Net Classes and assigning them to each of the nets, the PCB trace layout routines and DRC checking in the software will ensure that ensure that critical traces are wide enough to handle the higher currents and have enough space to avoid high voltage breakdown. And as an open source hardware design, the complete KiCad schematic, layout, and BOM are available at GitHub for download so you can try it with your next nixie tube project. The explanations of the steps are explained using the open source KiCad PCB layout software, but most PCB layout software will have similar features. As a result, the new “mini” nixie tube power supply footprint was reduced 27% to just 10.5cm^2. In this blog, I’ll show you two CAD power tools I used to get this done quickly and efficiently. Keeping both constraints satisfied to the very limit would be difficult without computer-aided design (CAD). The high currents require wide PCB traces to minimize losses and keep the efficiency high, and the high voltage of the supply requires large trace-to-trace spacing to avoid voltage breakdown and arcing. 170v) make the challenge of shrinking the PCB footprint by hand a rather time-consuming task. A good question to ask is how much smaller can the power supply get while keeping the same efficiency and layout objectives? The combination of high transistor currents (i.e. The design achieved a footprint size less than 14.5cm^2 and the efficiency was optimized in ( part 2) of the blog.

In a recent blog entry, I introduced a new type of nixie tube power supply that is powered from 5v, Designing a Small Footprint, Low Profile 5v to 170v Nixie Tube Power Supply (Part 1).

Fritzing 170v nixie power supply