05-15-2023

Slash sheets touch on materials, one of my favorite areas of PCB design, and what I refer to as “the buffet of the PCB world.” After all, this smorgasbord of materials comes in an endless variety, with differing balances of reinforcement and resin, from different manufacturers and vendors, and from a variety of sources. Add the possibility of out-of-date or deteriorated panels, and it makes ensuring the quality of your next PCB design a real hit or miss.

04-21-2023

In the field of PCB design, a massive paradox exists. No doubt, the PCB industry is a fascinating field. The ever-changing design environment faces constant and more complex challenges to make products smaller, faster, and cheaper. There are endless ways that electronic innovation changes lives for the better, as seen when advanced medical systems provide patients a new lease on life. But there also is a downside, an unfortunate side, to PCB design, and it has bothered me for some time. There is a massive amount of new PCB products hitting the market, especially in the consumer marketplace. But what happens to the "obsolete" products that are discarded, known as e-waste? This dark side of the PCB industry is not spoken about in social circles, but with innovation comes some negative.

03-23-2023

I have had the opportunity to do a considerable amount of traveling. Over many visits to the Philippines, I noticed a distinct lack of nursing homes, and learned that it is a common practice for children to take care of their parents. They even have a designated term for this practice, ma alaga, roughly translated as "take care of." This practice leads to some fantastic outcomes in the culture, resulting in each age group taking care of its own, with a beautiful overlapping of different generations. What a great concept.

02-16-2023

In the 1984 classic rock documentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” guitarist Nigel Tufnel proudly demonstrates an amplifier whose volume knobs are marked from zero to 11 instead of the typical zero to 10. From that movie, we get the phrase, “Turn it up to 11.” It’s a lesson of seeing a limit and exceeding it. So, here’s a rather personal question: What is your level 11? You are the only person who can answer that question, and I hope you will, both in your personal life and in your career.

01-30-2023

As it is said, necessity is the mother of invention. That is precisely the situation when we are discussing the PCB design industry. We are living in what can only be described as the golden age of Electronics. The advancements and innovations are growing by leaps and bounds. Never in history has the field of electronics grown at such a fantastic rate. The advance integration packages field is one of the fastest-growing and most exciting.

01-12-2023

John Watson asks the question to PCB designers: Why do you do what you do? It's a question someone asked him recently and the answer was clear. In this column, John shares a personal journey of a friend whose life was changed in an instant because of the efforts of so many, including a PCB designer. This story should give us all pause to consider the magnitude of what we do. The "puzzle pieces" of a PCB design become a working model for consumer products that affect even our most basic senses. Read on to learn more about the "why" behind his passion for PCB design.

12-15-2022

After finishing the statue of David, Michelangelo—Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance—was asked how he had created such a beautiful work of art. He said, “The sculpture was already complete within the marble block before I started my work. I merely had to chisel away the superfluous material.” After decades of being in the industry and seeing countless designs, it’s still amazing to me to see the exceptional beauty of a well-done PCB design. For designers, each PCB begins as a blank canvas; not knowing what the final product will look like, we walk a fine line between engineering and artistry, often producing fascinating results.

11-10-2022

Several years ago, a report came out of St. Louis of a strange apartment on the market. It was in the community of Central West End. With a small floor plan of only 200 square feet, the entire bathroom was placed right in the middle of the kitchen. Well, that's interesting. It gives new meaning to the studio apartment. Well, with closer examination, there are several convenient features available, so here's my point: In this story lies some fantastic lessons for us as PCB designers. In real estate, it's pretty uncommon to find the bathroom in the kitchen; but metaphorically speaking, it's done all the time in a PCB design (ouch).

10-13-2022

I recently had the opportunity to work on a rather critical PCB design project during what should have been the final design review. Unfortunately, after presenting my well-organized PowerPoint presentation, I asked the most challenging question to the group of assembled engineers and managers, “So, what do you think?” As we went around the room, nearly every comment started with something like, "You know what we could do..." Ideas flew around the room, fueling a full-blown brainstorm. Unfortunately, what followed could best be described as organized chaos. The result was that several of the suggestions took the product back to re-design, and what was supposed to be the final steps didn't happen.

09-08-2022

Have you ever gone to a buffet hungry and looking forward to digging in? You grab the plate and start down the food line, picking things as you go. Halfway through, your plate is stacked up with food, looking very similar to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then you get to the good stuff at the end of the buffet, but there’s no room on your plate. At this point, you probably feel much like that with the first part of looking at our footprint, but rest assured, although your plate is already full, the good stuff is still waiting for us. I have saved the best for our second offering.

08-17-2022

I hate to disappoint you if you expect to get everything about footprints from this modest column, but a short search online results in a long list of technical standards and books on this subject. So, I will only hit the surface of the discussion. I have often spoken about the parent-child relationship principle in PCB design. In this series, we have learned that we can see how that "relationship" is supported directly by the information in the component itself. As a short review, the parent-child relationship is where you use an input of data, material, or parts (parents) as the foundation or resource for another item or document (child).

07-13-2022

In the start of my series of the anatomy of a component, I discussed that the component has two major divisions. The first is information that consists of name, description, parametric information, sourcing (part choices), and the datasheet (Figure 1). Next, the component comprises symbol, PCB footprint, 3D model, and simulation models. I gave the example of the dissection of the frog, with an analogy that every part has a purpose. In the same way, each part of our component has a distinct purpose in our PCB design, including our models.

06-16-2022

One of the classes I dreaded the most in school each year was biology. This was because I knew it was only a matter of time before I would face the rite of passage for most high school students: dissecting a frog. It wasn’t something I ever looked forward to. We had to go through the same educational exercise and maybe with the same apprehension for most of us. But my point in bringing up the painful experiences of our high school years is, although it was difficult, I did learn a powerful lesson: Every part has a purpose.

05-12-2022

We have reached the end of this series regarding the five pillars of the component library. We now have a robust library that provides the required resources for the ever-changing industry. Above that is having a flexible library to grow with the company. The final pillar is traceability. Why is traceability so essential and considered a pillar of our library? Read on for details.

04-14-2022

I trust that you have been enjoying this series on the five pillars of your library. Now that we have a single library managed using our revisioning, and we have lifecycle schemes organized so that we can easily find something in the component category, family, and subfamilies, we are now ready to look at one of our library's most vital principles and pillars: reviewable.

03-10-2022

Before I continue with the series of the five pillars of your library, I want to do a little review. Although every library is different, the five pillars are consistent with any sound library. You place these pillars to support a specific building section in building construction. To pull one out requires the remaining ones to hold the total weight above. So, each of these supports is needed for your library to succeed. You cannot choose which of them you intend to follow; to pull just one out results in the toppling of the others.

12-12-2021

As a grandfather of six grandchildren, one of my great joys is spending time with them. There is nothing better than spending an afternoon at the park and especially playing on the teeter-totter. It's all fun and games until grandpa gets on one side, and they try to lift me. Then the harsh reality and a teachable moment in leverage, balance, and just how heavy grandpa really is hits pretty hard.

11-11-2021

The September edition of Design007 Magazine discussed the theme of collaborating and working with a team. In that issue, I wrote a feature article called “PCB Design Is a Team Sport.” After that edition was published, I had several follow-up questions and conversations with individuals; they agreed on the importance of teamwork but felt that it's easier said than done. It's challenging because of the inherent problem of team members accepting or handling change very well. Change it's a word that sends shivers down the spine of some. You know those sort of individuals. They're easy to identify. The ones that constantly remind everyone, "We never did it that way before." As if how we did things in the past was so much better.

10-14-2021

When I considered the title for this month’s article, I seriously considered calling it "From the Frying Pan Into the Fire" because I’m sure you’ve noticed recently that the component shortage problem has only worsened—we’re now seeing other supply lines breaking down.

09-29-2021

One of the hard lessons of this past year was about the value of the team and collaboration. I have repeatedly heard how many of us have a newfound respect and appreciation for the teams we work with inside our companies. Out of necessity, we had to find new ways to collaborate.

09-16-2021

For PCB designers, the most common part of the library is the collection of components used in the PCB design process. But, I have seen some libraries have other information, including a resource area, a group of documents, standards, and articles. So basically it can have anything you want.

08-12-2021

Various sciences, including physics, mathematics, chemistry, are significantly involved throughout the PCB design process, rules that can sometimes be bent but not broken. However, the rules that designers break and ignore altogether and very often are the design rules.

08-05-2021

PCB design is like bungee jumping. With the complexity of a PCB design, the intricate details, and various steps, it's rather easy to make mistakes. Those mistakes, many times, do not show up until it's too late and the board has gone off to fabrication and assembly. By the way, a good rule is not to use your assembly house as your quality control team for PCB designs.

07-18-2021

Mel Brooks may have something to teach us about going "ludicrous speed" in getting our designs to the finish line. John Watson explains.

06-10-2021

Over many years, I have seen some elaborate PCB library systems. However, the best ones were those not based on the size but rather the quality of the information. That old axiom is definitely “not quantity but rather quality.”

05-13-2021

Today, the electronics industry is flourishing with innovations and technologies. The result is that the “good” designers are left in the dust. Truthfully, our industry doesn't need more good designers; rather, we need great designers—those who can face any challenge and instead of cowering in the corner, looks at the task at hand and says, "Bring it on."

12-17-2020

As PCB designers, we work under the simple rule of cause and effect, and a PCB design can quickly become a petri dish for the butterfly effect to flourish. One of those areas that can quickly snowball into major problems is your PCB power distribution structure. When it goes wrong, it usually goes very wrong and has significant issues throughout your design.

11-18-2020

Whether on a customer, a system, or a PCB level, it’s essential to understand the final objective and how you intend to get there and meet the customer need at the forefront of any project. In this column, John Watson addresses density feasibility and more.

10-15-2020

When it comes to PCB design, one of the most overlooked principles is component placement. Similar to a home, the component location has a considerable impact on the quality and is the real value of a PCB design. John Watson examines five rules to follow when it comes to component placement.

09-10-2020

When starting every PCB design, the hope is that we can navigate through any pitfalls that arrive. Unfortunately, many times, issues happen that you do not handle correctly; they fall through the cracks and end up in your PCB design. John Watson explains how that is when the real problems begin.

08-06-2020

John Watson has seen firsthand how quickly PCB designs can “go off the rails” by not following a few simple principles. In this column, he looks at four practices that can easily ruin your PCB design.

07-09-2020

How you accurately analyze and identify certain information has a direct connection to the overall success of your PCB designs. In this column, John Watson focuses on the conventional naming scheme for the schematic symbol and footprint to prevent headaches and ulcers later.

06-11-2020

The past few months have been trying for everyone, with many of us working from home. However, there are still the underlining principles of collaboration to step into a role to finish the necessary tasks to keep a project moving forward. John Watson, CID, explains.

05-28-2020

When COVID-19 first hit, many businesses were forced to close, and we immediately saw its impact on the service industry. Whatever challenge you’re facing, John Watson emphasizes that it’s time to hit the switch on reinventing.

04-16-2020

With the recent COVID-19 outbreak worldwide, most of us have been forced to reshuffle how we work, live, and play. Something like this has never happened before in our lifetimes, and it is scary and challenging, but difficult times develop resilient people. John Watson shares some of the positive things he has already noticed come out of this situation.

03-12-2020

Anyone who has taken a road trip with children knows the question, “Are we there yet?” very well. This question also applies to PCB design. If you are not careful, your PCB project could easily go off track and you could lose sight of what you are doing (objective), why (motivation), how (process), and when (schedule). John Watson emphasizes the importance of these fundamental questions.