re do analog systems need ground planes engp nusunix nus sg soh kam yung writes i understand the need for a ground plane in a digital system however i would like to know if such a ground plane is also necessary in an analog system note this ground plane will not be connected except at one point to the signal ground i keep getting conflicting answers over this does having a ground plane in an analog system help reduce noise also my system only deals with low frequency signals up to hz only well one reason for getting conflicting answers is that it depends on what you want the ground plane to do a continuous conductor is a good electrostatic shield do you have signals on your board that need shielding rom other things this shielding won t do much good for magnetic fields unless you make it continuous around the circuit to be shielded like a faraday cage the flip side of the coin if you are working with very high impedances you could end up with capacitances to the gound plane that cause problems you aren t likely to encounter this at hz but at khz it can be a real problem one that bit me once
