Can a via be drilled into a SMD pad?

Can a via be drilled into a SMD pad?

To put it short, yes you can but you need a little care along the way. Via in pad is a bad thing if your via’s hole occupy more than 30% of the pads area AND if your pad is too small too! If your pad be too small and you use mechanical drill this might blow out the pad.

Can a via be placed next to a pad?

I would place the via as close as possible next to the pad, with a narrow connection which won’t draw the solder paste from the pad. There’s a technique called tented via which avoids this by covering the top of the via, but it’s covered with solder mask, so that’s not usable on a pad.

Can a PCB be soldered on to a pad?

If you’re using a cheap PCB manufacturer though, you may expect some visible imperfections. Sometimes putting vias on pads is recommended. A power component soldered on to the PCB will very often have numerous vias connecting its big thermally conductive ground pad to the GND trace on the bottom layer.

Is there a solder mask between a pad and a via?

There shall be at least 100um solder mask between the pad and the via, exactly to avoid this problem. If your assembly house makes sloppy work they will let you do this. If they are careful they will ask you to move the vias out of the pads.

How are solder masks used on SMD pads?

Using the normal solder mask shapes for pad C would get around the part-pulling case. There would be two separate solder mask openings on pad C with a section of solder mask between. The surface tension would pull to the center of each solder mask opening, not to the center of the whole pad C.

Is it bad to drill via in pad?

Myth: via-in-pad is a bad practice. Via in pad is a bad thing if your via’s hole occupy more than 30% of the pads area AND if your pad is too small too! If your pad be too small and you use mechanical drill this might blow out the pad.