-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueSilicon to Systems: From Soup to Nuts
This month, we asked our expert contributors to weigh in on silicon to systems—what it means to PCB designers and design engineers, EDA companies, and the rest of the PCB supply chain... from soup to nuts.
Cost Drivers
In this month’s issue of Design007 Magazine, our expert contributors explain the impact of cost drivers on PCB designs and the need to consider a design budget. They discuss the myriad design cycle cost adders—hidden and not so hidden—and ways to add value.
Mechatronics
Our expert contributors discuss the advent of mechatronics in PCB design, the challenges and opportunities this creates for circuit board designers, and the benefits—to the employee and the company—of becoming a mechatronics engineer.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Three Perspectives for HDI Design and Manufacturing Success
December 18, 2017 | Mike Creeden, San Diego PCBEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Mike Creeden has been in the PCB design industry for more than 40 years now. In June 2003, he founded San Diego PCB Inc., a design bureau serving a variety of industries, including industrial, automotive electronics, medical diagnostics, internet of things (IoT), defense, aerospace, and communications markets.
The company was acquired by EMS firm Milwaukee Electronics in December of last year. Currently, Creeden is the vice president of layout services for San Diego PCB, which has about 18 designers and supports four CAD platforms. He is also a master instructor at EPTAC, where he works on CID+ certification across the country.
San Diego PCB had the opportunity to be involved on designs requiring HDI. So, for this month’s issue of our magazines, we interviewed Creeden to get his insights on the challenges when it comes to HDI, and how designers and manufacturers can address those issues.
“HDI, along with almost any perspective from PCB design and layout, in my opinion, should consider three perspectives for success: there is a layout solvability, whereby oftentimes there’s a complex packaging challenge involving dense BGAs or fine-pitched BGAs; the electrical integrity—including all those signal integrity and polar integrity considerations; and manufacturability,” explains Creeden. “A designer must approach HDI and any portion of PCB design layout with all three of those perspectives in mind. The solvability is a skillset that a designer would have to essentially understand what it takes to truly satisfy the connectivity of the board. HDI exists in many different forms. For example, via in pad. It would require half the geometry to pin-escape a board if you can put the via right in the pad. Therefore, you must consider the manufacturability of that because now, you have potentially a via filling and a planarization and a plating aspect.
“From an electrical integrity standpoint, when doing via in pad, you essentially are reducing some of the parasitics, by having an extra piece of metal there to perhaps impede or affect the circuitry. Via in pad is a form of HDI. We’re seeing them routinely now in the 1,500 to 2,000 range; there are some BGAs that are way beyond that, but the norm is still somewhere between that neighborhood. With the dense pin-count of the BGA, it becomes difficult to route that out. It really becomes a geometric solve whereby you are going to utilize—even if the pin pitch is normal—an HDI to basically pin-escape in the dense board without adding extra layers.”
To read this entire interview, which appeared in the November 2017 issue of The PCB Design Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Foxhole Group Boosts Life Science Capabilities with Accutron Partnership
09/03/2024 | Foxhole GroupFoxhole Group, a private investment firm focused on the industrial sector, announced today that it has added significant depth of expertise in life science and aerospace and defense capabilities to its Foxtronics EMS platform by partnering with the Faldu family to add Accutron to the company’s portfolio of EMS brands.
Marshall, Tech Mahindra to Explore Aerospace and Defense Collaboration
09/02/2024 | MarshallMarshall and Tech Mahindra, a leading global provider of technology consulting and digital solutions to enterprises across industries, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to identify and develop opportunities to work together across the aerospace and defense domains.
A Less Expensive Defense and Aerospace PCB Fab Startup
08/20/2024 | Alex Stepinski, Stepinski GroupEditor’s note: Investing in a new printed circuit board fabrication startup is not for the faint of heart or the light of wallet. Standing up a new “high-tech” PCB fab facility capable of becoming qualified for aerospace and defense work typically takes a minimum investment of $50 million. However, Alex Stepinski says entering the defense and aerospace markets with a new PCB fabrication start-up facility far under this prohibitive cost benchmark is possible when good partnerships, innovation, and sound engineering design enter from the beginning. In this article, Alex Stepinski outlines just how this can be achieved.
USPACE and EgSA to Form Aerospace Joint Venture in Egypt
08/16/2024 | PRNewswireUSPACE Technology Group Limited is pleased to announce that the Group has signed the strategic partnership agreement with the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA), in relation to satellite manufacturing and testing, satellite launch, education and training, greatly expanding its business presence in the fast-growing African space market.
UHDI Fundamentals: UHDI Applications for Aerospace
08/13/2024 | Anaya Vardya, American Standard CircuitsUltra high density interconnect (UHDI) technology refers to advanced manufacturing processes used to create extremely compact and highly efficient electronic circuits at the sub-1-mil line and space level. In aerospace applications, UHDI is crucial due to the stringent requirements for weight, reliability, and performance in a challenging environment.