Simple Internal Rules of Thumb

Rules are given in order of priority.

• Consistency is key for clarity

• passives to power rails should be vertical

  • i.e. i2c pullups and decoupling capacitors

• schematics should follow a logical left to right flow

  • input on the left, output on the right

• higher electrical potential (voltage) rails should be above lower voltage rails

• signal passives should be horizontal.

  • i.e. shunt resistors

• Show Parameters for components

• minimize corners in schematic wires when possible

• components should be placed in the schematic near components they will be near in the layout when sensible

  • notably, decoupling capacitors should be placed in the schem near the IC they’re decoupling rather than say off on a random sheet. See https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EL/pages/2178154501/Decoupling+Capacitors?search_id=be08defc-9cba-48a6-9283-64e3f906590c&additional_analytics=queryHash---0f1c3fed2128d86a807147c6bab7604e287482b1998d87d9ba440968c2c77c3f for further detail.

• minimize length in schematic wires when sensible

• do not use excessive hierarchy

  • do not have a bunch of nested schematic sheets, it makes things confusing

Further Info

• https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EL/pages/2308538389/Electrical+Terminology?search_id=c217c471-023e-40e3-9d9c-926786a57657

• Net Naming Guidelines

• Schematic Four Point Nodes

• Importance of Schematic Grids

• Creating Common Components

Why We do this

• Standard

  • Makes reviews easier!

  • Improves human readability

• We dont want to nitpick

  • If you have a reason for doing something slightly different it’s fine

  • there are a lot of edge cases these simple guidelines dont cover so do what’s best and call it a day

    • as long as you did something for a reason then it’s chill, just don’t do things randomly

External Lengthier Guides

• https://blogupvertercom.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/schematic-style-guide/