Elementary, Mr. Watson: Rules of Thumb—Guidelines vs. Principles for PCB Design
Beyond Design: High-speed Rules of Thumb
Global PCB Connections: A Technical Overview of Long-flex Printed Circuit Boards
Design and Manufacturing Perspectives from DISH Technology’s Les Beller
May 30, 2018 | Barry Matties, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 23 minutes
Beller: Yep, that's true. We've seen a trend for our business somewhat declining because the availability of content online these days is just amazing. I myself stream a lot of content, and I've got a satellite system. I utilize both. We know that it's on the decline, so therefore we've been putting a lot of our technology into Sling TV. We've got one of the top three streaming products out there. We've done well with it and now we're going to move into 5G using the FCC-awarded frequencies. We have a plan together to work on infrastructure using some partnerships with some very well-known companies to help get us to a network that will support our IOT products that we're designing. We have a couple already in the process. People want to get their content faster, easier and cheaper over the internet. We're going to move forward with that technology.
Matties: No doubt you will. Just some final thoughts. What advice would you give a young designer?
Beller: I would try to position myself with larger corporations or design bureaus where you can have a lot of different design experiences. That was a benefit in my past. Working with a lot of different companies, I had to become a chameleon and learn something new every day, and work with many different engineers and with varying technologies. Position yourself in a company that has a wide variety of power products, high-speed products, etc. Design bureaus are always great for that. If you don't have that luxury and you tend to be experiencing one type of product design that you're working with within a captive design environment, spend the time to get out and get the education. Surf the Internet; there's a lot of information about layout and design. Educate yourself. Get your CID rating. Use your tools. Get familiar with other tools if you can. Get demo copies. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of different tools, because, let's face it, if you have to leave a company and you're an expert on tool A and that other company has tool B, you're not going to be as good of a bargain for them as the person that's experienced with tool B.
Matties: Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you feel like you should share with the industry?
Beller: I spend probably 25% of my time working with the supplier base and understanding their capabilities with respect to the circuit boards themselves. We've had to disqualify some of the suppliers because they won't move along with our recommendations to improve different characteristics of their factory. I would say don't just treat your supplier as though they're behind a curtain and that they're going to know how to do everything the best. Go behind the curtain and audit the suppliers using the basic info you can find on the Web. It’s a fun project to develop a PCB audit program that focuses on basic quality points and ensures the supplier is utilizing SPC. Look over their shoulder and spend time in their factories looking at what they internally audit.
If your company has a supply chain person who's not technically based, who's going out and doing all the work with the suppliers, go with him. Insist that it's required so that we can assist that supply chain person and go in as a partner should. Be very aware of what your supplier is doing relative to laminate use, modeling, and what they're doing with their critical nets. Basically, it’s very important for a designer to be involved in the whole front-end process in the fab shop these days.
Matties: Great advice. Les, thank you so much. Always great to catch up with you.
Beller: Thank you, Barry.
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