Share on:

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

Suggested Items

Beyond Design: Refining Design Constraints

07/17/2025 | Barry Olney -- Column: Beyond Design
Before starting any project, it is crucial to develop a thorough plan that encompasses all essential requirements. This ensures that the final product not only aligns with the design concept but is also manufacturable, reliable, and meets performance expectations. High-speed PCB design requires us to not only push technological boundaries but also consider various factors related to higher frequencies, faster transition times, and increased bandwidths during the design process.

Are Our Stackup Rules No Longer Valid?

12/19/2024 | Cherie Litson, EPTAC MIT CID/CID+
Are the stackup rules we used to follow no longer valid? It depends on what you’re designing. Electrical rules change depending on your circuit. Fabrication rules change depending on which fabricator you’re working with. Today, we just have more options, and sometimes, cost is a bigger rule than anything else. If you search online for information about layer stackups, trace widths, and hole sizes in PCBs, you’ll find a variety of resources.

Global PCB Connections: Following DFM Rules Leads to Better Boards

12/18/2024 | Jerome Larez -- Column: Global PCB Connections
As a PCB field applications engineer, ensuring smooth communication between PCB designers and fabricators is one of my frequent challenges. A critical part of that dialogue is design for manufacturing (DFM). Many designers, even experienced ones, often misunderstand or overlook important DFM considerations. They may confuse design rules with manufacturing minimums, leading to technically feasible designs that are difficult or costly to produce. In this column, I will clarify some common DFM guidelines and help designers understand the difference between “design rules” and “minimums” while sharing best practices that will simplify the production process and ensure the highest quality PCB.

Happy’s Tech Talk #35: Yields March to Design Rules

12/12/2024 | Happy Holden -- Column: Happy’s Tech Talk
Ultra high density interconnect (UHDI) has many forms, structures, and alternatives, so capturing all the variations and reducing them to design rules has required some departures from traditional IPC design standards. In this column, I’ll be discussing the IPC UHDI design guidelines and standards. The fundamental question is: “Do you need HDI or microvias?”

If You Can Define It Right, You Can Design It Right

12/05/2024 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007
Design engineer Chris Young is known for his optimized design process. As lead hardware engineer with Moog Space and Defense Group and owner of Young Engineering Services, Chris collects data like it’s going out of style, and he leaves nothing to chance. With that in mind, I asked Chris to discuss his views on rules of thumb—which ones work, which ones should be avoided, and how rules fit ideally into the PCB design process.
Copyright © I-Connect007 | IPC Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. Log in