A Primer on High-Speed PCB Design

Before you continue reading, you can watch the companion video for this guide. In it, I walk you through every setup step in KiCad 9, demonstrate the correct way to import project libraries, and show how to structure your workspace to prepare for schematic and PCB development.

Introduction

This guide explains how to prepare KiCad 9 for work on a custom LattePanda Mu Carrier board, a project that introduces you to professional high-speed PCB design practices.

You will learn how to correctly set up your KiCad project directory, import schematic symbols and footprints from the LattePanda reference design, and verify that your workspace is properly configured before beginning schematic creation.

There are two main approaches you can take: a fast setup that copies the LattePanda Mu Carrier reference project directly, and a manual setup that rebuilds the schematic from scratch. Both methods have value, but the manual method offers far greater educational benefit.

Option 1: Using the Reference Design Directly

The quick method starts by cloning or downloading the official LattePanda Mu Carrier reference design from GitHub.

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After extracting the archive, you will find folders for Electricals, Libraries, and Documentation. The electrical directory contains two projects: the full carrier and the Lite Carrier. The Lite version will serve as the example in this guide.

To begin:

1. Copy the Lite Carrier folder into your own working directory.
2. Open the .kicad_pro project file in KiCad.
3. Review the schematic. You may mark any unused connectors—such as PCIe—as Do Not Populate in the symbol properties.
4. In the PCB editor, delete the existing layout (or only selected portions) to start a custom layout from a clean slate.

This approach saves time and allows you to experiment quickly, but it bypasses much of the learning process. For those who wish to truly understand the LattePanda Mu hardware architecture, the manual setup is far more instructive.

Option 2: Building the Project from Scratch

To build your own LattePanda Mu Carrier project, create a new KiCad 9 project folder—for example:

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