Power plane
Encyclopedia
In printed circuit board
Printed circuit board
A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring...

 (PCB) design, a power plane is the counterpart to the ground plane
Ground plane
In electrical engineering, a ground plane is an electrically conductive surface.-Radio antenna theory :In telecommunication, a ground plane structure or relationship exists between the antenna and another object, where the only structure of the object is a structure which permits the antenna to...

 and behaves as an AC
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....

 signal ground, whilst providing DC voltage for powering circuits mounted on the PCB.

Uses

Where possible it is good to have a power plane for each ground plane on a board (known as a "plane pair"), as this reduces power supply impedance
Electrical impedance
Electrical impedance, or simply impedance, is the measure of the opposition that an electrical circuit presents to the passage of a current when a voltage is applied. In quantitative terms, it is the complex ratio of the voltage to the current in an alternating current circuit...

 to the components on the board.

EDA design tool aspects

In electronic design automation
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...

 (EDA) design tools, power planes (and ground planes) are usually drawn automatically as a negative layer. Adding primitive
Primitive
Primitive may refer to:* Anarcho-primitivism, an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization* Primitive culture, one that lacks major signs of economic development or modernity...

s on such a layer produces a negative of those primitives, placing copper wherever there is no track or via
Via (electronics)
A via is a vertical electrical connection between different layers of conductors in a physical electronic circuit.- In IC :In integrated circuit design, a via is a small opening in an insulating oxide layer that allows a conductive connection between different layers. A via on an integrated circuit...

.
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