I've seen some conflicting recommendations about how to design 2-layer
boards, particularly with respect to filling in all unused areas of
the board with solid copper and connecting that to ground. I can't
dig up the reference right now, but I had read somewhere that this is
a bad idea -- something about the solid areas acting as antennae or
something like that, or traces cutting through the "planes" forming
current loops with a plane segment in the middle.
So -- two questions: Is it a good idea to fill unused areas with
copper, and what should those areas be connected to? Should I use
them as ground, and actually connect components to them, or connect
them to ground but route ground to the components separately (star
ground)? Or should I leave them completely unconnected? Obviously, I
will do my best avoid ground loops in any case, which is not that hard
to acheive if you just connect one line from the rat's nest at a time,
thereby avoiding redundant connections, right?
TIA for any advice,
Randall