@Tim Edwards Might you know what the io_clamps are for and what they are in general (are these io_clamps pads?)? I see that some analog pads don't have io_clamps and some do. From some old MPW-2 youtube video + slide deck, I was under the impression that none of the pads had ESD protection. Thanks in advance.

The Caravan padframe was designed for analog use with the idea of being "general purpose". Since "general purpose" analog includes both high-speed analog and high-voltage or high-current analog, I wanted to provide resources on the padframe for both that would overcome limitations of using the GPIO for analog (which can be done but is limited to < 50MHz and < 5.5V). The pads with the clamps are intended to be used when some of the pads are used as additional power supplies. The user domain supplies

vccd1

,

vccd2

,

vdda1

, and

vdda2

are always available and are best to use because they are properly clamped and ESD-protected. The three pads with clamps in the Caravan padframe are straight-through analog connections but with a lot more metal, able to take a current of 100mA each. If they are used as power supplies, though, the supplies should be clamped, so the positive side of the clamp should be wired to the positive supply voltage, and the negative side of the clamp should be wired to the ground return, with as wide a metal and as close to the pad as can be done practically. So yes; these pads have no ESD protection. The clamps are one kind of ESD protection but are not connected by default and need to be wired up if you want to make use of that ESD protection. Otherwise, none of the pads has the basic reverse-biased diode connections to power and ground, so for any signal pad, you are advised to put some diodes close to the pad or else handle the chip very, very carefully.

@Tim Edwards thanks once again for the information! My team is doing more floor-planning before we enter our final stage of layout.