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Questions relating to designing PCBs
By tparty
#169958
I am trying to design an intrinsically safe PCB, which means it will not be able to cause a spark, but am having trouble finding resources to learn about it. I've read through a few standards on intrinsic safety (mainly IEC 60079-11) but they are a bit tough for me to translate directly to PCB design. Does anyone know of a good place to find design rules for intrinsically safe pcb layout? I'm more than willing to do reading but any search I've done for some kind of in depth guide that tells me more than just "withstand two faults without sparking" has come up with hardly any worthwhile results. I'm trying to find something that will tell me what kind of trace spacings, trace widths, component spacing, and maybe even some schematic design guide that will tell me how/when I should be adding in barrier components.

I can get into more detail about what I am doing if anyone would like but mainly I'm looking for some guidance in the right direction to learn more about intrinsic safety. Thanks for any help!
By Purple Squirrel
#172734
IEC 60079-11 is pretty much the standard that everyone uses. For PCB design the intrinsic safety portion deals with sparks...or the energy that generates them and the required spacing to stop a spark from forming.

If you are still having some trouble with this, post a specific question that you have and let us help.