How Do You Know If Your Vias Can Handle The Current Through Your PCB

"How many vias do you need?" It depends, but crossing your fingers and adding more hoping for the best isn't an answer. IR drop is a geometry problem, and the only reliable way to solve it is to simulate it. This video walks through exactly how to do that in Allegro X with Sigrity X Aurora, from setting up your VRMs and sinks to reading current density vectors and identifying the choke points in your copper before the board ever goes to fab. Because the alternative is finding out six months into field deployment when the heating complaints start coming in. 00:00 — How much current is going through your vias? 00:57 — Why current density causes IR drop 02:00 — Setting up IR drop analysis in Allegro X 03:50 — Reading the IR drop results and voltage differential 04:31 — Current density color map: finding your hotspots 05:19 — Understanding current flow vectors 07:03 — Why more vias alone doesn't fix the problem 07:53 — Three layout fixes: vias, wider planes, component repositioning 10:40 — IR drop is a geometry problem — here's how to fix it