Hello everyone,

I am trying to make an amplifier board based on the TI IC TPA3123D2. It has several power pins and ground pins. Here is a relevant excerpt from the datasheet:

• Grounding—The AVCC (pins 19 and 20) decoupling capacitor and VBYP (pin 7) capacitor should each be grounded to analog ground (AGND, pins 8 and 9). The PVCCx decoupling capacitors and VCLAMP capacitors should each be grounded to power ground (PGND, pins 13, 14, 23, and 24). Analog ground and power ground should be connected at the thermal pad, which should be used as a central ground connection or star ground for the TPA3123D2
  

I'm using Eagle and struggling to connect the pins if they have different names so how do I connect several different GND pins if they have slightly different names like AGND and PGND? Does it even matter? Can I just name them all GND and link them up as it states?

Many thanks,

Tim

 

An easy fix is to make a part that consists of two connected pads and name one pad "AGND" and the other pad "GND". Place this part inside the thermal pad and connect both grounds to their respective pads. You'll get a warning when you do a DRC, but you can just accept the warning and move on.

 

Thanks SLK001. I'll give that a try.

Tim