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The Shaughnessy Report—Multi-board Design: Multiple Challenges?

If one PCB is good, aren’t two or more boards even better? That is the question!

For most of the PCB’s history, electronic devices contained a single circuit board. But that was back in the “olden days,” and that time has passed.

Over the past few decades, we’ve seen a gradual expansion of the number of multiboard electronic devices. Products are more complex now, plain and simple. There’s no way that anyone could build a car, not to mention an autonomous car, with a single PCB in 2018.

Multiboard devices are here to stay. But multi-board PCB design brings with it even more challenges for the designer and design engineer. It’s all about management. It reminds me of a juggler trying to keep half a dozen balls in the air.

Every aspect of the design process is different, from schematic through data hand-off. Design teams, sometimes working in different time zones or countries, must become fluent in system-level management of a variety of interconnects, and ECAD and MCAD collaboration is more critical than ever with multi-board designs.

Designers are constantly making trade-off decisions throughout the multi-board design cycle, especially regarding reliability, thermal management, signal integrity and power integrity. The final product’s form factor weighs heavily on the design process, and a good 3D EDA tool is a requirement for laying out multiple PCBs today.

Fortunately, most of the EDA tools of today have multiboard design capabilities, and 3D functionality plays a big role. Interconnect management, data management, concurrent design, and ECAD-MCAD co-design functions also help bring multiboard design into the mainstream.

For our June issue, we have a variety of features that are chock-full of multi-board design information. In our first interview, Dave Wiens of Mentor discusses multi-board design techniques, from a 30,000-foot view down to a nuts-and-bolts board level, including the various trade-offs that occur throughout the design cycle. Zuken’s Bob Potock provides a technical article on the 3D convergence of multi-board PCB and IC packaging design, and the importance of ECAD and MCAD collaboration. Finally, we interviewed Ben Jordan of Altium, who breaks down many of the challenges related to multiboard design, and some of the techniques that can simplify complex designs. As Ben says, “It’s not a complicated concept.”

From our monthly contributors, we have Barry Olney of In-Circuit Design who explains DDR3 and DDR4 fly-by topology termination and routing, while John Coonrod of Rogers Corporation discusses exceptions designers might encounter when comparing material data sheets. And Jade Bridges of Electrolube shines a spotlight on the selection of thermal management materials.

To wrap things up, we have an article from Chang Fei Yee of Keysight Technologies that outlines the best methods for achieving signal integrity during layer transition in high-speed boards.

As we head into the summer, take the time to download a PDF of Design007 Magazine to read on the beach. We’ll keep bringing you all of the design news and technical information that you need!