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
Workflow Challenges in Fabrication
December 22, 2022 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Q&A with Paul Cooke
The job of the PCB designer is becoming more complicated every day. Designers are now acting as what amounts to project managers for the PCB, and they must be familiar with the many trade-offs that happen during manufacturing, many of which they can control during the design cycle.
Paul Cooke, the senior director of business development for Ventec International Group, is presenting a class at IPC APEX EXPO 2023 that looks at workflow challenges in fabrication, and the myriad drivers that can affect yield, reliability, and cost. Here he discusses the details of this Professional Development course, what he hopes attendees will take away, and why designers and design engineers would benefit from this class.
Q: Paul, tell us a little about the Professional Development Course on process flow and defects you are teaching at the show.
A: I put this course together to give designers, engineers, etc., a more in-depth look at what happens to their design as it goes through the fabrication process. It looks at how the fabricator adjusts processes to meet the design intent and what happens when it goes wrong; it’s like a [IPC] 2221, 6012, 600, and 9121 course all rolled into one. It shows the complexity of the process and how designs can affect the process flow, yield, quality etc. We talk about reliability, for example, of how something like via size can be affected by aspect ratio, layer count, drill parameters, desmear, and material selection and how they would all interact with each other to affect yield, cost, and reliability.
Q: Why should someone attend your class?
A: It’s for anyone wanting to increase their knowledge of the fabrication process. It is aimed at designers and process engineers at any level. The course is designed to be interactive with a lot of questions and hopefully 30 years of knowledge transfer. Time permitting, we may get to cover some emerging technologies.
Q: This sounds like a great class for PCB designers. What are some of the trade-offs designers should be aware of that can affect yield and reliability?
A: There are many factors affecting yield, reliability, and ultimately cost. We will look at each part of the process, discussing how each can be affected, which attributes of the design have the most impact on yield improvement, and how the fabricator achieves the desired level of release.
Q: What is the most important piece of advice you would give your attendees?
A: Attend the course with a lot of questions and take a lot of notes as we will cover a mountain of information. By the end I hope they have a comprehensive knowledge of the process and learn to always talk to a field application engineer prior to setting out on a new type of design, to eliminate any changes later due to cost, capability, yield, etc.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A: I hope they all enjoy the course, and I am always looking for feedback, good or bad, so that I can adapt and improve for future classes.
This article originally appeared in the December 2022 issue of Design007 Magazine.
Share on:
Suggested Items
Digital Twin Concept in Copper Electroplating Process Performance
07/11/2025 | Aga Franczak, Robrecht Belis, Elsyca N.V.PCB manufacturing involves transforming a design into a physical board while meeting specific requirements. Understanding these design specifications is crucial, as they directly impact the PCB's fabrication process, performance, and yield rate. One key design specification is copper thieving—the addition of “dummy” pads across the surface that are plated along with the features designed on the outer layers. The purpose of the process is to provide a uniform distribution of copper across the outer layers to make the plating current density and plating in the holes more uniform.
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.
Showing Some Constraint: Design007 Magazine July 2025
07/10/2025 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamA robust design constraint strategy balances dozens of electrical and manufacturing trade-offs. This month, we focus on design constraints—the requirements, challenges, and best practices for setting up the right constraint strategy.
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.
TTCI Joins Printed Circuit Engineering Association to Strengthen Design-to-Test Collaboration and Workforce Development
07/09/2025 | The Test Connection Inc.The Test Connection Inc. (TTCI), a leading provider of electronic test and manufacturing solutions, is proud to announce its membership in the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA), further expanding the company’s efforts to support cross-functional collaboration, industry standards, and technical education in the printed circuit design and manufacturing community.