Decoupling Capacitor Routing: When to Use Vias vs Traces

Altium Develop gives your whole team real-time visibility into PCB power integrity decisions — from decoupling capacitor placement to plane routing — all in one connected platform: https://www.altium.com/develop?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=power-integrity&utm_content=decoupling-capacitor-routing-when-to-use-vias-vs-traces

Should you use vias or traces to connect decoupling capacitors to power and ground pins on your ICs? The answer depends heavily on pin location — and in this video, Zach Peterson breaks down exactly when each approach is optimal. Sparked by a real LinkedIn question from a viewer, this follow-up to the decoupling capacitor placement series digs into the inductance tradeoffs between trace routing and via connections, using real component examples from an Ethernet switch design in Altium.

Using the Layer Stack Manager's impedance calculator, Zach demonstrates how a half-inch trace on a 50-ohm microstrip can carry nearly 3.9 nH of inductance — roughly four times that of a typical PCB via. When power and ground pins are far apart, vias to the plane win on both inductance and routing convenience. But when pins are adjacent, short traces can outperform vias by keeping total loop inductance well under 1 nH. This practical, example-driven analysis gives you the context you need to make the right call on your next design.

👉 Resources from this video:

- Does Decoupling Capacitor Placement Actually Matter?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSpyE9CP97g

- When Does Decoupling Capacitor Location Matter on a PCB?: https://resources.altium.com/p/when-does-decoupling-capacitor-location-matter-pcb

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0:00 Intro

0:53 Capacitor Placement Importance

2:38 Peter Barnes LinkedIn Question

4:21 Simon Bramble's Statements ️

5:25 Real Component Pin Locations

6:30 Decoupling Capacitor Layout

7:15 Vias to Ground Plane Use

8:21 Inductance: Trace vs. Via

09:12 Altium Layer Stack Manager

10:33 Decoupling Capacitor Design ️

12:17 Trace vs. Via Connections ️