Elementary, Mr. Watson: Rein in Your Design Constraints
Target Condition: Are Autorouters Friend or Foe?
Fresh PCB Concepts: Assembly Challenges with Micro Components and Standard Solder Mask Practices
Speaking the Same Language as Your Fabricator
March 12, 2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” —Strother Martin as the captain in “Cool Hand Luke”
Strother Martin might have been talking about PCB designers and fabricators when he uttered the most famous line of his acting career. We do indeed have a failure to communicate; designers and fabricators often seem to be talking past each other, which can lead to jobs being put on hold.
We asked Jen Kolar, VP of engineering for Monsoon Solutions, and columnist Kelly Dack to share their thoughts on ways that we can break down the communication barrier between design and fabrication. As they point out, a design kickoff checklist and a solid review process can be invaluable tools in a designer’s toolbox.
Andy Shaughnessy: Welcome, Jen and Kelly. What are the most common communication mistakes, miscues, and missteps that you see between design and fabrication?
Jen Kolar: Oftentimes, we ask our project manager, “Can you please remind our designers to actually follow our process?” We have a standard process for how all outputs and packages should be created. However, many of our customers add their own tweaks. Speaking of language, when fab shops don't have CAM350 and they're using a lower-end tool, I have seen issues flagged as errors when they were not actually errors. It’s happened many times. I try to avoid having designers send both Gerbers and ODB++ because invariably, the fab vendor will have differences, and you'll spend a lot of time with the fab vendor trying to resolve this.
Kelly Dack: Jen and I have had similar experiences. She hit the nail on the head about sending ODB++ and Gerber in parallel. One North American supplier built it using the ODB++ data, and when the boards came in, the customer asked, “Why is this different from the PCBs we received from our offshore supplier?” Well, it turned out they had Gerber data different from the ODB++ data. Jen, where does it all start with the design tool? It's so easy for designers to start clicking away and have our layout tools guide us through the process using the standard design rule settings. New designers don't know what they don't know, and they may be relying on standard out-of-the-box settings from their layout tools.
To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the March 2025 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Suggested Items
Meet the Author Podcast: Martyn Gaudion Unpacks the Secrets of High-Speed PCB Design
07/10/2025 | I-Connect007In this special Meet the Author episode of the On the Line with… podcast, Nolan Johnson sits down with Martyn Gaudion, signal integrity expert, managing director of Polar Instruments, and three-time author in I-Connect007’s popular The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to... series.
Elementary, Mr. Watson: Rein in Your Design Constraints
07/10/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonI remember the long hours spent at the light table, carefully laying down black tape to shape each trace, cutting and aligning pads with surgical precision on sheets of Mylar. I often went home with nicks on my fingers from the X-Acto knives and bits of tape all over me. It was as much an art form as it was an engineering task—tactile and methodical, requiring the patience of a sculptor. A lot has changed in PCB design over the years.
Facing the Future: Time for Real Talk, Early and Often, Between Design and Fabrication
07/08/2025 | Prashant Patel -- Column: Facing the FutureThere has always been a subtle but significant divide between those who design and those who build printed circuit boards. It’s not a hostile gap, but it is a real one, and in today’s high-speed, high-complexity, high-stakes environment, that gap is costing us more than time and yield. It’s costing us innovation.
Elementary Mr. Watson: Retro Routers vs. Modern Boards—The Silent Struggle on Your Screen
06/26/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonThere's a story about a young woman preparing a holiday ham. Before putting it in the pan, she cuts off the ends. When asked why, she shrugs and says, "That's how my mom always did it." She asks her mother, who gives the same answer. Eventually, the question reaches Grandma, who laughs and says, "Oh, I only cut the ends off because my pan was too small." This story is a powerful analogy for how many PCB designers approach routing today.
Cadence AI Autorouter May Transform the Landscape
06/19/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazinePatrick Davis, product management director with Cadence Design Systems, discusses advancements in autorouting technology, including AI. He emphasizes a holistic approach that enhances placement and power distribution before routing. He points out that younger engineers seem more likely to embrace autorouting, while the veteran designers are still wary of giving up too much control. Will AI help autorouters finally gain industry-wide acceptance?