-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueLevel Up Your Design Skills
This month, our contributors discuss the PCB design classes available at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. As they explain, these courses cover everything from the basics of design through avoiding over-constraining high-speed boards, and so much more!
Opportunities and Challenges
In this issue, our expert contributors discuss the many opportunities and challenges in the PCB design community, and what can be done to grow the numbers of PCB designers—and design instructors.
Embedded Design Techniques
Our expert contributors provide the knowledge this month that designers need to be aware of to make intelligent, educated decisions about embedded design. Many design and manufacturing hurdles can trip up designers who are new to this technology.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
The Roles of the Designer and the Design Engineer
May 25, 2016 | Steve Hageman, Analog HomeEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Steve Hageman has been designing electronics since elementary school. An engineer by trade, he has decades of experience performing PCB design and layout. He spent years at HP, Agilent and Calex before hanging out a shingle for his engineering company, Analog Home. As someone who wears engineer and designer hats, Steve was a natural for this month’s issue. I asked Steve to give us his opinion about the divide between some PCB designers and their engineers, and what can be done to solve this problem.
Andy Shaughnessy: Steve, tell us a little bit about your company and how you operate.
Steve Hageman: I have experience working for companies of 50 people, to working for a company with 10,000 employees, to working as an individual contributor solving my specific customers’ problems. As most engineers will agree, solving specific customers’ problems is perhaps the most rewarding.
Shaughnessy: A recent survey of our PCB designer readers found that there’s often friction between PCB designers and engineers. Some designers say their EEs are their biggest challenge. Why do you think there’s such disconnect?
Hageman: I remember a quote by David Packard: “Follow the advice that Abraham Lincoln gave himself: ‘If I don’t like this man, I have to get to known him better.’” I have found that to be very true. Mr. Packard also knew that to get along with others you had to understand what they face as challenges. Taking the time to see the other person’s point of view is very hard today with the crush of schedules that we all have.
I think the biggest disconnect is the schedule compression that happens. We all know how this goes: The design takes longer than expected, so the PCB start date is pushed out, but the PCB delivery date is not changed, hence the poor guy that is last on the schedule has his schedule compressed beyond belief. By then, everything is rushed and things fall through the cracks. And what falls through the cracks typically is the EE design constraints.
The PCB folks are also pushed by manufacturing and these manufacturing rules are oftentimes only vaguely known by the EEs, hence they don't know what to allow for.
At very large companies there is a third entity pushing the PCB layout: the EMC/safety folks. Again, more constraints and rules that the EE may only vaguely know about. All of this comes together with schedule compression and causes the PCB folks to have to redo portions of the design to meet all the known and unknown design constraints.
Redoing work is never fun for anyone, especially when the time demands are so great. The only solution that I know of is to learn from the uncovered serious problems and with the team decide a path forward to try to prevent these from happening again in the future. And then try to stick to the plan.
To read this entire article, which appeared in the April 2016 issue of The PCB Design Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Signal Integrity Expert Donald Telian to Teach 'Signal Integrity, In Practice' Masterclass Globally
04/17/2024 | PRLOGDonald Telian and The EEcosystem announce the global tour of "Signal Integrity, In Practice," a groundbreaking LIVE masterclass designed to equip hardware engineers with essential skills for solving Signal Integrity (SI) challenges in today's fast-paced technological landscape.
Designing Electronics for High Thermal Loads
04/16/2024 | Akber Roy, Rush PCB Inc.Developing proactive thermal management strategies is important in the early stages of the PCB design cycle to minimize costly redesign iterations. Here, I delve into key aspects of electronic design that hold particular relevance for managing heat in electronic systems. Each of these considerations plays a pivotal role in enhancing the reliability and performance of the overall system.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
04/12/2024 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007As we publish this week’s most-read news, the I-Connect007 team is wending its way home from an eventful and productive week at IPC APEX EXPO in Anaheim, California. We’ve posted a variety of dispatches from the show this week, released 73 realtimewith.com video interviews (and counting), and also gathered the content and updates you’ll be looking for in the upcoming issue of Show & Tell… IPC APEX EXPO 2024.
Material Insight: The Importance of Standards for the Chip Packaging Industry
04/12/2024 | Dr. Preeya Kuray -- Column: Material InsightI had the great pleasure of recently attending the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) CHIPS R&D Chiplets Interfaces Technical Standards Workshop. The purpose was to bring together technical experts across industry and academia to deliberate one of the most pressing technological matters of 2024: chip packaging standards.
What’s New in Design Education at IPC APEX EXPO?
04/11/2024 | Kelly Allen, IPC Training ManagerKelly (Kel) Allen shares her thoughts on the educational offerings at IPC APEX EXPO and beyond. In this interview, she discusses some of the newest classes taking place during the conference in Anaheim, covering everything from design, fab, and assembly through mil/aero, test, and supply chain issues.