Book Excerpt: 'The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to... Designing for Reality,' Introduction

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Excerpt from: The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to... Designing for Reality

Introduction
The printed circuit board industry is ever growing and changing. As a new generation of PCB designers spearheads innovation across a myriad of electronic device applications, individuals without those specialized skills are increasingly called upon to design boards in order to accelerate product development and drive down costs.

With more of us working to gain board layout experience on the job, Designing for Reality becomes a very pertinent discussion topic in the PCB industry. But what does that phrase even mean and why should we focus on such a topic? For those who may be new to PCB design or possess limited experience, it is crucial to recognize that creating a robust and manufacturable PCB design requires paying close attention to numerous details. There are a lot of unwritten rules, best practice techniques, and design requirements that vary by manufacturer. Learning and understanding these often-subtle factors will give designers a leg up creating realistic board designs and enable them to take their skills from novice up the ranks. The goal of a PCB designer is to create a design that is free from defects that can “kill” the board or make it difficult to manufacture.

Realistic PCB designs should prioritize manufacturability and reliability of the PCB as well as meet the other design requirements. In order to do so, one must account for the production variables associated with individual manufacturing partners.

Whenever I have the opportunity to talk to a PCB designer or students, I encourage them to tour a PCB manufacturing facility to get a better understanding of how the board manufacturing process works. It is mind blowing. There are many more processes and steps required than one would imagine.

I first toured a PCB shop just after college while interviewing for a position as a lab technician. I remember being in awe of all the processes required to turn a design into an actual PCB. In that 50,000 square foot facility, boards were being manufactured using what appeared to be newer, highly innovative machinery right next to older, seemingly outdated equipment.

My curiosity got the better of me that day. I simply had to learn more about these processes, and thus began my career in the PCB industry. For an open-minded designer, there is a lot of great information to be learned from a couple of hours on the shop floor in a PCB manufacturing facility.

We envision this book as a potential substitute for a shop tour and a reference for designers to help them understand the PCB manufacturing process as it relates to their design. Designing for manufacturability requires understanding the production process fundamentals and factors within the process that can lead to variations in manufacturability, reliability, and cost of the PCB. We understand that PCB designers want to create a design that is functional, robust, and fits the economic constraints of the product. Manufacturing partners want to help you do that, so they seek to understand the requirements of the design and build the board to be manufacturable, reliable, high yield, and profitable.

This book is built from the wisdom of 50 years of PCB manufacturing at Sunstone Circuits. I hope that we can use this opportunity to pass that wisdom on to those honing their skills in the craft.

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