PCB design glossary
Pad
AKA: pads
An exposed copper area on a PCB that a component lead solders to.
A pad is the piece of exposed copper a component lead lands on. Surface-mount pads sit on top of the board; through-hole pads have a plated hole through them. The size, shape, and finish of pads is set by the footprint and constrained by IPC-7351 recommendations.
Pad geometry matters for assembly yield: too-small pads cause tombstoning on small SMD parts, too-large pads waste space and can cause solder bridging.
Designing a board that uses pad?
PCBEditor turns a plain-English description into a verified schematic — then handles placement, routing, and export to Gerber or KiCad.
Open PCBEditor