Share on:

Share on LinkedIn Share on X Share on Facebook Share with email

Suggested Items

Beyond Design: High-speed Rules of Thumb

11/21/2024 | Barry Olney -- Column: Beyond Design
The idiom “rule of thumb” is often used in electronics design and has its origins in the practice of measuring roughly with one’s thumb. Rules of thumb are easy-to-remember, broadly accurate guides or principles based on practice rather than theory. They are used to help feed our intuition to find a quick solution based on experience. We are often forced to use rules of thumb in PCB design in the absence of expensive analysis tools. We also use them to get quick ballpark figures initially and then fine-tune the numbers with further analysis. We can use rules of thumb as a sanity check to assess whether we are using our tools correctly. In this month’s column, I will present some commonly used and helpful rules for high-speed PCB design.

Partial HDI: A Delicate Balance

10/30/2024 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team
Partial HDI can be the perfect solution for designers faced with escape routing from tight-pitch BGAs. But there are a variety of material, signal integrity, and DFM trade-offs to understand before you get fully into partial HDI. We asked Stephen Chavez to explain the fundamentals, as well as the details, of this promising process. Are you using partial HDI?

Fresh PCB Concepts: The Critical Nature of Copper Thickness on PCBs

10/31/2024 | Team NCAB -- Column: Fresh PCB Concepts
PCBs are the backbone of modern electronics and the copper layers within these boards serve as the primary pathways for electrical signals. When designing and manufacturing PCBs, copper thickness is one of the most critical factors and significantly affects the board’s performance and durability. The IPC-6012F specification, the industry standard for the performance and qualification of rigid PCBs, sets clear guidelines on copper thickness to ensure reliability in different environments and applications.

Book Excerpt: The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to... DFM Essentials, Ch. 1

10/25/2024 | I-Connect007
The guidelines offered in this book are based on both ASC recommendations and IPC standards with the understanding that some may require adjustment based on the material set, fabricator processes, and other design constraints. This chapter details high-frequency materials, copper foil types, metal core PCBs, and the benefits of embedded capacitance and resistor materials in multilayer PCBs.

Designers Notebook: Implementing HDI and UHDI Circuit Board Technology

10/23/2024 | Vern Solberg -- Column: Designer's Notebook
To accommodate new generations of high I/O semiconductor packaging, circuit board technology has undergone significant changes in both the fabrication process method and the criteria for base material selection. The reason behind these changes is the new high-function semiconductor package families that require more terminals than their predecessors and a significantly narrower terminal pitch.
Copyright © 2024 I-Connect007 | IPC Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. Log in