PCB design glossary
Footprint
The land pattern (pads, courtyard, silkscreen) on a PCB that physically holds a component.
A footprint is the physical mounting pattern for a component on the PCB: the metal pads the leads solder to, the courtyard that reserves space around the part, the silkscreen outline that helps an assembler orient it, and any mechanical holes or fiducials.
Footprints are typically drawn from the manufacturer's datasheet using IPC-7351 land-pattern guidelines. Getting the footprint wrong is one of the more common reasons a board fab succeeds but assembly fails.
Designing a board that uses footprint?
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