Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: Use Board Vendors as Fab Experts

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I was shocked recently when I heard a salesperson talking about his design customers who don’t want to hear what board vendors think about their design. I know this type of thing occurs all too frequently, but what shocked me was that he told me this thinking was based on some kind of philosophy--actually, a well-known, well-regarded philosophy taught by a famous design guru. Apparently this “guru” has been teaching this type of thinking for years. It goes something like this: “You’re the board designer, you’re the expert on how the board should be designed, so don’t listen to anything the board supplier has to say. He just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Really? Are you kidding me?

I guess I should've known better. I should've known a lot better since a few years ago I was in charge of four design service bureaus in all four corners of the country. I was the sales manager for a company selling both boards and design services. The company had been in business for over 20 years when I got there and I was there several years before they asked me to take over the management of the service bureaus. I say management because that’s the part I could handle, not being a designer myself. The first thing I learned, much to my dismay, was that all but a couple of the 30 or so designers who worked for us had never been to the board shop. In fact, most had no idea how a board was fabricated. I should have guessed that from the get-go when I heard them referring to the boards as “cards,” as in “Look, these are just cards, why do they have to cost so much, or take so long to build?” Other comments included: "So what if I decide to use LMR Kevlar instead of epoxy laminate? What’s the big deal? Just build it to the design.” Or, the worst comment ever, “Eight-mil lines or 5-mil lines--what’s the difference? It’s just a card, right?”

Just about every board fabricator I work with tells me the same thing: Many of their customers get angry at them if they ask too many questions. If they question a hole to pad ratio that cannot be met, they are told, “The other guy does it all the time. Why are you questioning it? Just assume the design is right and move on.” What are these people thinking? Do they really not want to know if something is wrong with their design? That in many cases the design is not only difficult to build, but impossible? The customer just doesn’t want to hear it. And, as many of you know, in many cases he's just not getting what he thinks he's getting. The “other guy” is just shutting up and giving him what he wants--regardless of whether or not it’s correct.

The latest dilemma is with impedance calculations. Apparently some designers are getting testy if the board fabricator dares to question their calculation at all. Once again, as these designers learned from the guru’s school of thought, board shops have no aptitude or right to question their calculations.

It’s time to apply some common sense to this issue. The fact of the matter is that a design is not complete until you can hold the product you’ve designed in your hand and it's been tested and measured to make sure it's exactly what you wanted. And no, that is not going to happen until a good board shop--one that cares about the integrity of their process and product--builds that board. And, finally, in most cases the board fabricator's input about how the board should be built is critical to that board’s design.

Fortunately, the tide is turning on this issue. More and more companies are turning to board vendors for input on not only the validity of the design, but the manufacturability as well. They are also looking to board vendors to assist in producing the most cost effective design as possible. More often than not the board suppliers are literally saving their bacon by finding better, more efficient, and cost-effective ways to design and build boards.

Look guys, your board fabricators are experts at building boards. They have built hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of them and they know the best processes. They are a great resource to you as their customer and a board designer. Use them and bring them to the table--it will pay of immediately and in the long run. It’s only common sense.