A Necessary Shift From Gerber to IPC-2581

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

IPC-2581 is an open, vendor-neutral data exchange standard developed by the Global Electronics Association to streamline the exchange of PCB design information across fabrication, assembly, and test. It replaces multiple legacy formats—including industry standards, Gerber, and ODB++—with a single, comprehensive, XML-based dataset that captures all manufacturing details.

By enabling a unified digital product model, IPC-2581 has been shown to reduce errors, eliminate ambiguity, and improve efficiency across the electronics manufacturing process. It is a key enabler of modern, data-driven, and Industry 4.0 manufacturing workflows. As OEMs, such as Cisco Systems and Amazon, push this forward, the IPC-2581 Consortium, led by Hemant Shah, chair, is working to educate a reluctant industry to help them help themselves by adopting the IPC-2581 data format. IPC-2581 was created by merging two previous formats: ODB++ and IPC’s GENCAM (back in 2004). It has been used to fabricate, assemble, and test boards since Jan 1, 2016.

In this interview, Hemant and consortium colleague Terry Hoffman, technical leader in product operations at Cisco Systems, explain how IPC-2581 is an unavoidable solution for superior data integration and communication as manufacturing moves forward.

Tracy Riggan:  Hemant, you led a full-day summit on adoption of IPC-2581 at APEX EXPO this year, focused on getting more companies to adopt this standard. What topics were covered during the summit, and what do you hope attendees gained from participating?

Hemant Shah: We hold these summits to bring together companies from the design and manufacturing sides to learn from each other and understand their challenges in adopting the standard. In some cases, like Terry presented, they've successfully replaced Gerber with 2581 on their designs. What did they learn and how did they go through the process of adopting it?

Many companies have been using IPC-2581 since 2016. This was a follow-up to the October summit and was intended to provide them with an update and several other presentations, including one from Cisco talking about its migration from Gerber. Another was from Aegis discussing how their contract manufacturing customers use IPC-2581. Dana Korf of Victory Giant spoke about why manufacturers should use IPC-2581, showing that much of the data passed to manufacturing is defective and needs correction. A presenter from Amazon spoke about how the company is using 2581 for stackup exchange and what challenges they're facing getting it to fabrication.

Two very interesting things came out of the discussions. First, a request to validate the output of their tools that produce data files to IPC-2581, to confirm whether the files produced by their tools are correct against the schema. That was a hot topic.

Next, to our surprise, was that many companies are interested in using AI with the IPC-2581 data to develop their own tools to get work done faster.

Terry Hoffman: IPC-2581 is inherently AI-enabled, so it's a very good format for doing that.

Shah: It's everything in one file, so you don't have to train the AI to understand multiple files, missing data, and so on. You just feed it the IPC-2581 file, and AI can do the check.

Riggan: What are the next steps to ensure this becomes the global standard for data transfer?

Shah: One recurring theme from the summit was how companies are requesting educational materials they can pass to suppliers or their design houses, so the design houses can send them to their manufacturers to learn about IPC-2581, and vice versa. We need a best practice for spreading the message about the benefits of IPC-2581 and broadening our reach, with the help of the Global Electronics Association.

Hoffman: The enhancements that we make in the standard as we progress are important. Version 4 has several enhancements that we've requested over the past couple of years. We need to let people know what it supports today vs. what it supported even just last year, and make sure they know they can ask for changes to be included as we continue to update the standard.

Riggan: Are there any major hurdles to adoption that you're still facing?

Hoffman: The industry has been using Gerber data for decades, and people don't like to change. The PCB industry is just as bad as the power industry. They just don't want to spend the money to change. I'm trying to break that down.

Some OEMs are asking whether IPC-2581 is supported, and they're being told no, so they just give up. But Cisco, on the other hand, found that it would protect their IP. Now we're telling our vendors that we'll be sending you IPC-2581 data, and it's good data. It has everything the vendors need to build and assemble boards.

Shah: Changing over from Gerber to IPC-2581 is a process, not a light switch. When Terry said he told his suppliers, they worked together to develop a process and made sure the transition would go smoothly before they actually switched formats.

Hoffman: Yes, and we did extensive testing ahead of time to ensure the data was being exported properly. There are ways to compare the Gerber to the IPC-2581 data output and demonstrate that the data is good. If it wasn't, we’d go back to our CAD vendor and have them update their software. It’s important to make sure that everybody is good with it. You have to prove it to them.

Shah: But the key to migrating is for a design house to make the decision that they want to modernize how they communicate with their manufacturing partners for their own benefit, as well as for the manufacturing companies to realize that 2581 saves them time, improves their efficiency, and gives them data to work on to improve that process in the future. Then they must educate their customers and say, “If you give me IPC-2581, it's better for you and for me. It works for both sides.” Both sides win by using 2581.

Riggan: Do you have any closing comments about IPC-2581 or, specifically, the work of the consortium? How can industry members support this effort?

Shah: Yes, we're an open consortium, and there's no fee to join. Participate as little or as much as you want, but as a consortium member, the more you participate, the more you can influence the direction of the standard and the decision-making.

Hoffman: You can also attend just to ask questions about problems you're having.

Shah: There are two email addresses they should remember. TC@ipc2581.com is for technical questions about the format, the schema, the usage, and info@ipc2581.com is for all other questions regarding adoption.

Those email addresses go to multiple people, so you not only get somebody to respond quickly, but you also get multiple perspectives if there are multiple perspectives to the answer.

Hoffman: That's the nice thing about having multiple people. There are different opinions for different things. Hopefully, we can all come to the same conclusion eventually. Sometimes we differ, but that's the way things happen, so it's all good.

Riggan: Thank you so much for your contributions to this effort and for joining the Technology Conference.

Hoffman: Thank you.

Shah: Thank you for having us.

Tracy Riggan is senior director, Community Technology Solutions, Global Electronics Association