Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Top 25 Design007 Stories of 2010

In online publishing, especially in the business-to-business arena, views are what it’s all about. When a columnist or contributor crafts an article that pulls in a few thousand views, we know that he – or she – is onto something. And if a news story blows up the view-o-meter, the topic of that story might be worth a follow-up.   

We went back and searched Design007’s most-read stories of 2010. (How would we have even attempted to do this with print magazines? I never knew if anyone actually read the magazine unless I heard from a happy or unhappy reader.) 

Now, the results are in. Check out the Design007 Top 25 of 2010. Enjoy!

25. The Shaughnessy Report: HDI Class Q&A with Dan SmithIs North America falling behind the rest of the world in HDI technology development? Not if Dan Smith can help it. "The New Mr. HDI" is putting together the first IPC HDI certification course and exam. We caught up with him and discussed the HDI course, what it takes to be an HDI instructor and Happy Holden's 400-gig "data dump.

24. Inductance of Bypass Capacitors, Part IA couple of great new columnists came aboard this year. Istvan Novak began a new series of columns by looking at the most important component of the power distribution network: The bypass capacitor. In this first offering, he begins with the basics. Remember, the ideal capacitor "smooths out" the voltage.

23. Resistance, Reactance and Impedance, Part 3By Doug Brooks: Congratulations! You've made it to Part 3. Part 1 focused on resistance. That was pretty simple; there is a single component value, it does not depend on frequency, and there is no phase shift. Part 2 covered reactance, which is much more complicated. This installment on impedance ties it all together.

22. Jack Olson: Preparing for Component Placement, Part IIAt this point, you should have mounting holes, tooling holes and fiducials placed, keepout areas defined and components with fixed locations placed and locked down. You've decided whether your design will be single-sided or double-sided. Now, let's get started placing components!

21. Jack Olson: Preparing for Component PlacementJack Olson is creating an introductory tutorial Web site for novice circuit board designers. The site is not yet complete, but we can't resist giving readers a sneak preview. His latest chapter outlines one approach to component placement. This week, we look at Jack's preparations for placement.

20. Great Education Online, if You Know Where to LookBy Andy Shaughnessy: Many Internet sources provide education and training in our respective fields. You just have to know where to look. It's not quite like attending a live training event, but you can improve your skill set through the Internet, and you can often do so free of charge.

19. New Column: Reid on ReliabilityBy Paul Reid: Each month a new failure mode will be described, including the damage--expressed as increase in resistance per thermal cycle--that accumulates as the circuit fails. An animation of that failure will be offered for the reader's review. This online format is perfect for sharing these animations.

18. Resistance, Reactance and Impedance, Part 2By Doug Brooks: Capacitors and inductors are almost exactly opposite in their effects. Both "impede" current, but capacitance impedes current at low frequencies, inductance at high frequencies. Capacitance causes voltage to lag current by 90 degrees, while inductance causes voltage to lead current by 90 degrees.

17. Thermal Cycle Testing: Surface Finish and PWB ReliabilityBy Paul Reid: Surface finishes, for the most part, function to protect traces and provide a surface that is easy to solder. But the tin finish is notorious for its ability to grow tin whiskers that may short to adjacent conductors. And in thermal cycling testing, nickel is a double-edged sword: Nickel may increase or reduce cycles to failure.

16. Manage Your Vias, Manage Your Design, Part 1By Kate Mayer: Via design affects every aspect of today's PCBs. I teach new designers to never place SMT components without leaving room for fanout vias, and to customize the fanout to create rows of vias to create "streets" or "routing channels." For my next few columns, we will focus on vias and explore teachable moments so that we can "manage our vias and manage our designs."

15. Sweet Sixteen: Happy Birthday SI-ListBy Eric Bogatin: Sixteen years ago, on May 16, 1994, the SI-List was born with 30 members on the charter e-mail list. The brainchild of engineer Ray Anderson, the SI-List has grown to 4,000 members spread across more than 34 countries.

14. The Bare (Board) Truth: Today's Smaller GeometriesBy Mark Thompson: Technology continues to drive geometries smaller and smaller. But how does this "shrinkage" affect fabrication? It may be counterintuitive. Many customers believe that trace sizes below 0.004" are a bigger concern than spaces less than 0.004", but that's just not the case in a fabrication environment.

13. Free Download: Ritchey's High-Speed Design HandbookYes, designers love free stuff. So, we published for free download Lee Ritchey’s "Right the First Time: A Practical Handbook on High-Speed PCB and System Design.” This comprehensive 48-chapter handbook is an essential resource for any designer. 12. PCB 101: Coefficient of Thermal Expansion      By Bob Tarzwell: Coeffecient of thermal expansion (CTE) is one of the phrases we use daily in the printed circuit business. But how many of us really know what CTE is and how it affects the way a circuit board is designed and fabricated? If you're working with large BGA packages, CTE is already a big part of your life.

11. Unsung Heroes: Happy Holden     By Ray Rasmussen: Happy Holden has been involved with PCBs, in one way or another, for over 40 years. He's had a wild ride--how many people do you know who turned down a chance to join Steve Wozniak in a startup in the early 1970s? Ray Rasmussen asked Holden to share some details of his life well-lived as a PCB technologist.

10. Reid on Reliability: Interconnect Separation Anxiety   By Paul Reid: Interconnect separation is usually expressed as a crack that propagates at the internal interconnection. This failure mode produces a crack that is wedge-shaped, with the large end on the side of the foil closest to the middle of the PWB. An interconnect failure frequently develops slowly over time, accumulating damage at a constant rate after onset.

9. Reid on Reliability: The Corner CrackCorner cracks are observed less often than barrel cracks, but with high-rel boards, we can't be too careful. Unlike barrel cracks, which can fail catastrophically, knee cracks tend to propagate over time. Paul Reid explains that the damaged pad actually resembles a funnel and the warp and weft of the glass give the funnel an uneven, puckered shape.

8. Resistance, Reactance and Impedance, Part 1New columnist Doug Brooks brings us Part 1 of a three-part primer on resistance, reactance and impedance. Most of us are familiar with resistance, but few really understand reactance and its relationship to resistance. And few really understand the relationship between impedance and the other two properties. This series will tie them all together.

7. The Shaughnessy Report: Who's Hiring PCB Designers Today?Are there any designer jobs open right now? What do hiring managers look for when they hire PCB designers? Staffing executive Derek Doucette with American Contract Group knows first-hand. If you're a designer looking for work, or if you're worried that you might be job-hunting soon, this column is for you.

6. Signal Integrity Analysis for Military PCBsBy Glen Thiele, Peralex Electronics: With electronic warfare products, the populated PCBs often push the limits of speed, density and low power consumption. The following three-part signal integrity analysis strategy helps us to identify problem signals and avoid overdesigning the circuit board.5. Doug Brooks: Rumors of PCB's Demise ExaggeratedI'd like to weigh in on Ray Rasmussen's column about the end of the PCB. The problem with predictions like this is that they are based on the wrong metric. True, the number of functions per PCB has been increasing exponentially, almost forever. But I respectfully suggest the correct metric is NOT functions per PCB, but the number of PCBs per box. THAT measure is much more optimistic.

4. Reid on Reliability: PWB Barrel Cracks: Accelerating FailureWith mission-critical, high-reliability PCBs, the study of barrel cracks is critical. When the failure criteria are set at 10% increase in resistance, a powerful method can be used. Paul Reid explains why stopping at 10% allows us to observe a ripening failure "dripping" with information, rather than a catastrophically failed circuit that is significantly deformed.

3. PCB Market Growth Boosts EDA IndustryBy Gary Smith, Gary Smith EDA: The year 2009 was a tough one for the EDA market overall, and general trends haven't changed. But the PCB tools segment is reaching out to adjacent markets to drive its growth. That highlights a growing trend for EDA vendors getting into new markets, at least new to EDA.

2. The Bare (Board) Truth: How to Qualify Your FabricatorBy Mark Thompson: This column is written from the viewpoint of you, the customer. What should you look for when qualifying a fabricator? Sure, you want the company to be IPC Class 3 6012 capable and ISO-certified, and you may need them to be ITAR-certified as well. But what other criteria can help you separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak?

And, the most-read design story of 2010:

1. Molto Bene! Orbotech Executive ForumAs stories go, this was the big one, by Ray Rasmussen. At Orbotech’s forum in Venice, Italy, Mentor Graphics laid out plans to eventually incorporate all of Valor's DFM and DFA functionality into its design tools, thus eliminating any need for Valor to exist. Sure, you could see that coming – but this could be a real EDA gamechanger.           

Have a great holiday!