Gold plated outline Ground

[Nikos A.]

Hi everyone and happy new year,

What is the purpose of this outline gold plated ground with vias fence?

Please see the attached picture

Thanks in advance

Nick

[ap]

Does not have to be gold plated, but is exposed side area, so here no solder mask, just the board with its plating surface. Purpose of via fence is mostly to keep the EMI generated internally inside the board and not radiate this through the edges.

[Nikos A.]

Thank you for the reply AP,

In that case I suppose that the plating surface is ENIG? (that's why the gold color?)

[deBug]

Yes, looks like ENIG.

[German_EE]

Both a friend and I normally do this with our home made PCBs, it's a good way to ensure grounding to the case if you use one where the PCB just slots in, or it's a PCB case with the board soldered all the way around. For prototypes you can do the border with copper tape.