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The Shaughnessy Report: Let’s Get Small

I sometimes wonder what people were thinking during great moments in history. For instance, did you ever wonder what was going through the minds of the technologists who created the earliest PCBs?

I imagine that when the first PCBs were developed, rather than just being satisfied that they’d created this great new piece of interconnect, the lead engineers were already thinking, “What if we could put more components on this thing? What if we shrank the traces? Could we use the ENIAC computer to design PCBs? That would be swell!”

Then it was on: The Tight Tolerances Arms Race. Available board real estate has been shrinking ever since those golden days of PCBs. Maybe it’s just human nature; we tend to want more of everything, and there was plenty of empty space on those early boards.  

Now, spaces, traces, pitch, vias—everything about the PCB is tiny. And for decades, most of you enjoyed the logistical challenge: How much more can you pack onto a circuit board? How small can you go before you reach a practical manufacturing limit?

Apparently, some of you have reached your own limit, so to speak. In our surveys, almost 20% of PCB designer respondents say that dealing with finer features and the accompanying lack of real estate, all while facing tighter deadlines, is taking the fun out of the job. They also believe that many OEM customers are not savvy, shall we say, about the basics of PCB design and manufacturing, which further frustrates the designer and exacerbates the problem.

Designers, you made it look easy, and now customers expect you to work your magic, and to do it quickly. It doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better. As I said, it’s human nature. Your customers are going to keep squeezing every mil of available space out of your board real estate. Unless you plan to retire soon, you’re going to have to keep working with increasingly finer spaces and traces. (And please don’t retire. We don’t have any youngsters in line to replace you.)

To read this entire article, which appeared in the June 2016 issue of The PCB Design Magazine, click here.