What is Tear Drop pads on PCB?

Tear Drop Pads are an extra feature that adds additional copper at the junction of annular rings with PCB traces. It is named this due to the teardrop like shape made with the ring. This teardrop shape design feature enhances structural integrity against possible thermal or mechanical stresses, while also compensating for small fabrication tolerances that may compromise structural integrity. A common type of fabrication error is hole misalignment,which removes too much copper from the junctions of a via pad and PCB trace, causing the possibility for a broken trace connection or too thin of a connection. Tear Drop Pads leave extra copper and lowers the chance of board functional problems occurring due to hole misalignment.

We at Hopetimepcb typically add tear drop pads whenever possible if an annular ring is thinner than 7mil since it will increase tolerance limits for mistakes reducing the possibility of PCB problems occurring after fabrication and assembly.