I am using an non isolated 12V dc- dc converter. Input voltage is 48VDC and and output power is 12VDC * 16A. Taking 95% efficiency of the module, input current will be 4.2A. I wanted to know the current that will sink to the ground plane of PCB. Is it equal to 16A + 4.2A ?
It depends on how you connect the power supply between the incoming negative supply track and the outgoing negative track up to the load.
It the incoming track comes directly to the negative terminal of the supply and from same point track goes to the load, then incoming track current is 4.2A and outgoing track current is 16A.
However, if the negative terminal of the supply is connected through a track to a joint between the incoming supply negative and the load negative, then this connecting track will carry (16 - 4.2) = 11.8A while rest of the track as above.
Remember that the current flows out of the supply negative terminal towards the incoming negative supply and load current flows towards the supply negative terminal.
Simply flow the loop equations, it should be equal to algebraic sum of the current =(16-4.2)A=11.8 A
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