A plane is an uninterrupted area of metal covering the entire PCB layer. A planelet, a variation of a plane, is an uninterrupted area of metal covering only a portion of a PCB layer. Typically, a number of planelets exist in one PCB layer. Planes and planelets distribute power to a number of points on a PCB. They are very important in the transmission of signals along traces because they are the return current transmission medium.