-
-
News
News Highlights
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Hole Truth: Via Integrity in an HDI World
From the drilled hole to registration across multiple sequential lamination cycles, to the quality of your copper plating, via reliability in an HDI world is becoming an ever-greater challenge. This month we look at “The Hole Truth,” from creating the “perfect” via to how you can assure via quality and reliability, the first time, every time.
In Pursuit of Perfection: Defect Reduction
For bare PCB board fabrication, defect reduction is a critical aspect of a company's bottom line profitability. In this issue, we examine how imaging, etching, and plating processes can provide information and insight into reducing defects and increasing yields.
Voices of the Industry
We take the pulse of the PCB industry by sharing insights from leading fabricators and suppliers in this month's issue. We've gathered their thoughts on the new U.S. administration, spending, the war in Ukraine, and their most pressing needs. It’s an eye-opening and enlightening look behind the curtain.
- Articles
- Columns
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
Simplifying Your Design
November 9, 2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: 1 minute

It’s safe to say that millions of dollars, not to mention man-hours, are wasted each year because of over-constrained, overly complicated PCB designs. Much of this is due to the increase in signal speeds and rise times, even in “mature” PCBs, and the extra cost is already part of the budget.
For this issue on simplifying PCB designs, the I-Connect007 Editorial Team spoke with IPC instructor Kris Moyer about ways that designers can avoid overconstraining their designs and making them needlessly complex. As Kris says, streamlining your design comes down to having a solid understanding of fab and assembly processes and the silicon tradeoffs that can simplify or overcomplicate your design, as well as the need to start working with fabricators early in the cycle.
Andy Shaughnessy: What are some typical snafus and missteps that you see designers make to overcomplicate their designs?
Kris Moyer: Here’s what often happens: Let’s say you have one connector on your board that needs tight tolerance. But rather than dimensioning to just that connector, locally, designers will do a tight tolerance to the data from the global dimensioning system, which now constrains the entire board.
Or, if they need perfect coplanarity on a BGA part for good BGA mounting, they’ll put co-planarity back over the entire board where they don't need it, because regular chips, gull-wings, and so on don't need the same amount of coplanarity as a BGA—or they'll try to hold layer tolerances: “I need a 2-mil layer plus or minus 10%,” because they know that 10% is normal for tolerance, but they missed the part of the spec that says 10% or 1 mil, whichever is greater. Fabricators can't hold that tight a layer-to-layer tolerance when it's below a certain layer thickness.
Below about a 10-mil thickness, the best fabricators can do layer-to-layer is 1 mil for nominal processing; If you want to hold a tighter tolerance, you're paying for 100 to get five boards. That’s just a couple of examples. Another is overly tight hole tolerances: “I want to have 150-mil diameter hole ±1 mil.” Again, it's unreasonable, right?
To read the rest of this interview, which appeared in the November 2023 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Gorilla Circuits Elevates PCB Precision with Schmoll’s Optiflex II Alignment System
06/23/2025 | Schmoll MaschinenGorilla Circuits, a leading PCB manufacturer based in Silicon Valley, has enhanced its production capabilities with the addition of Schmoll Maschinen’s Optiflex II Post-Etch Punch system—bringing a new level of precision to multilayer board fabrication.
Sierra Circuits Boosts High Precision PCB Manufacturing with Schmoll Technology
06/16/2025 | Schmoll MaschinenSierra Circuits has seen increased success in production of multilayer HDI boards and high-speed signal architectures through the integration of a range of Schmoll Maschinen systems. The company’s current setup includes four MXY-6 drilling machines, two LM2 routing models, and a semi-automatic Optiflex II innerlayer punch.
Elementary, Mr. Watson: PCB Routing: The Art—and Science—of Connection
06/11/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonMany people who design circuit boards love the routing part of the design. This is partially because we want to stop looking at the annoying rat's nest of connections, which seem to have no rhyme or reason at first glance. We want to get to something more exciting. Routing is the ultimate part of solving the puzzle. You take all the messy lines from the schematic and turn them into neat, organized paths.
Connect the Dots: Proactive Controlled Impedance
05/29/2025 | Matt Stevenson -- Column: Connect the DotsFrom data centers to smartphones, designers know that the ohms have it. Getting impedance right ensures all-important signal integrity and delivers high-performing boards. Our designers understand the importance of controlled impedance, but not everyone addresses it in their designs. The most common and important controlled impedance types we see include microstrip, stripline, embedded microstrip, and differential pairs.
Driving Innovation: Traceability in PCB Production
05/29/2025 | Kurt Palmer -- Column: Driving InnovationTraceability across the entire printed circuit board production process is an increasingly important topic among established manufacturers and companies considering new PCB facilities. The reasons are apparent: Automatic loading of part programs, connection with MES systems and collection of production data, and compliance with Industry 4.0 requirements