Electronic – GND connections and ground plane routing

altiumgroundrouting

When I let Altium do autorouting and then I define a ground plane using a polygon connected to my ground pin, I often get layouts where a GND line is flanked on both sides by the GND polygon, and then at the ends, both connectors are connected to the GND polygon:

Is this actually good layout for a ~10-50 MHz circuit? Would it be between to get rid of the gaps between the two grounds (image center) and have the ground plane be continuous? That way there is more conductive material, and the left and right GNDs have a shorter path between them.

Best Answer

Those are thermal relief connections to the ground plane to improve soldering. They won't create any problems as far as high frequencies go. You could change the settings in Altium to flood over those pads, whether that would create a solder problem depends on your board stackup and assembler's soldering process. I avoid ground planes on outer layers because they generally create broken areas of ground that could possibly radiate. Solid ground planes on inner layers are a better option IMO.