-
- 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
Material Conservation: The PCB Designer's Role
September 1, 2022 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: 3 minutes
During these times of supply chain uncertainty, many product developers are considering new ways to conserve materials—from laminates to components, layer reduction, and everything in between. Barry Matties and Happy Holden recently spoke with Alun Morgan, president of EIPC and technology ambassador for Ventec, about material conservation strategies for today’s PCB designers and design engineers. Alun explained why this may be the perfect time to educate PCB designers about conserving materials: When a model is broken, the people involved are much more open to new ideas.
Barry Matties: As companies try to navigate these challenging times, they’re considering changing their strategies. What other options do they have?
Alun Morgan: The only other option is stopping completely. Cease operations. And that really is an issue.
Matties: Material conservation must be a conversation in many facilities today.
Morgan: Yes. And actually, I hope we can come out of this and start accepting Happy’s very simple suggestion. He said, “Why don’t we just reduce the thickness of the boards?” That would save a huge number of resources, just a huge number, which has got to be a good thing. Using less material is a good thing in any way, shape, or form.
Happy Holden: Everybody is buying direct imaging equipment now, but the thing is they’re still designing 4-mil lines and spaces. Well, if you went to 2-mil lines and spaces and had half the number of signal layers, you would also need fewer power and ground layers. Unfortunately, currently in North America, if you can’t route the board with 4-mil lines and spaces, you add more layers, you make the thing more complicated, and use more materials.
You don’t go back and reconsider: Should I use 3/3? No, you just slap in more signal layers. Well, that’s great, but what if your vendors can’t buy the material? That’s not a solution. North America is particularly bad at that. You’ve got to start looking at other solutions because doing it the same old way (SOW) that we did 40 years ago will not work. When we have a material crisis, you can’t get copper foil. You can’t get prepreg. Well, stop using copper foil. Stop using as much prepreg. Extend what you have.
Morgan: Or use less. The message you’re giving, Happy, is one that we’ve heard before, which is that you must get to the designers and explain because if you don’t get the designers on board, they won’t design the boards that way. Many of us have spent our working lives talking to designers. Of course, there are a lot of them and every time we’ve talked to one set, there’s a new batch of designers coming along.
They need to understand what this is all about, because they would never come to that kind of conclusion naturally—to make the board thinner. They would never come to that conclusion because they don’t understand. But in the space of a short presentation, you could probably give designers a huge amount of information and help them make the change. Maybe this will be the catalyst for designing for conservation (DFC), because we haven’t seen the worst of it. I’m certain of that. Maybe it will be the catalyst that will drive some proper change.
Happy, you and I know what some of the possibilities are if we can get designers to think in terms of material conservation. I’m not saying that we know everything, but we know some things that could work, and this might be the time. This may be our chance to actually do something to reduce material consumption, starting with board design.
To read the rest of this interview, which appeared in the August 2022 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
The Chemical Connection: Reducing Etch System Water Usage, Part 2
05/02/2024 | Don Ball -- Column: The Chemical ConnectionIn my last column, I reviewed some relatively simple ways to reduce water usage in existing etch systems: cutting down cooling coil water flow, adding chillers to replace plant water for cooling, lowering flow rate nozzles for rinses, etc. This month, I’ll continue with more ways to control water usage in your etcher. Most of these are not easily retrofittable to existing equipment but should be given serious consideration when new equipment is contemplated. With the right combination of add-ons, it is possible to bring the amount of water used in an etch system to almost zero.
Designer’s Notebook: What Designers Need to Know About Manufacturing, Part 2
04/24/2024 | Vern Solberg -- Column: Designer's NotebookThe printed circuit board (PCB) is the primary base element for providing the interconnect platform for mounting and electrically joining electronic components. When assessing PCB design complexity, first consider the component area and board area ratio. If the surface area for the component interface is restricted, it may justify adopting multilayer or multilayer sequential buildup (SBU) PCB fabrication to enable a more efficient sub-surface circuit interconnect.
Insulectro’s 'Storekeepers' Extend Their Welcome to Technology Village at IPC APEX EXPO
04/03/2024 | InsulectroInsulectro, the largest distributor of materials for use in the manufacture of PCBs and printed electronics, welcomes attendees to its TECHNOLOGY VILLAGE during this year’s IPC APEX EXPO at the Anaheim Convention Center, April 9-11, 2024.
ENNOVI Introduces a New Flexible Circuit Production Process for Low Voltage Connectivity in EV Battery Cell Contacting Systems
04/03/2024 | PRNewswireENNOVI, a mobility electrification solutions partner, introduces a more advanced and sustainable way of producing flexible circuits for low voltage signals in electric vehicle (EV) battery cell contacting systems.
Heavy Copper PCBs: Bridging the Gap Between Design and Fabrication, Part 1
04/01/2024 | Yash Sutariya, Saturn Electronics ServicesThey call me Sparky. This is due to my talent for getting shocked by a variety of voltages and because I cannot seem to keep my hands out of power control cabinets. While I do not have the time to throw the knife switch to the off position, that doesn’t stop me from sticking screwdrivers into the fuse boxes. In all honesty, I’m lucky to be alive. Fortunately, I also have a talent for building high-voltage heavy copper circuit boards. Since this is where I spend most of my time, I can guide you through some potential design for manufacturability (DFM) hazards you may encounter with heavy copper design.