Hi All,

This is a high voltage (kVs) power supply. I'm just wondering why there are reliefs cut into this board as shown in the pic. I have a pen pointing to one of them but tee are many.

Thanks!

Joe

 

The slots greatly increase the breakdown voltage between adjacent tracks. This is a pretty normal thing on better PCBs.

 

excellent, makes sense and thanks so much!

 

I'm just wondering why there are reliefs cut into this board as shown in the pic.

Creepage. Refer to page 11 in this document.

 

Welcome to AAC.

These are often called “anti-tracking slots” and are common even on mains voltage circuits. They isolate the mains from low voltage side of the circuit in switching power supplies, for example. On a well designed SMPS PCB you will find one dividing the input from the output of the optoisolator.