-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueLevel Up Your Design Skills
This month, our contributors discuss the PCB design classes available at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. As they explain, these courses cover everything from the basics of design through avoiding over-constraining high-speed boards, and so much more!
Opportunities and Challenges
In this issue, our expert contributors discuss the many opportunities and challenges in the PCB design community, and what can be done to grow the numbers of PCB designers—and design instructors.
Embedded Design Techniques
Our expert contributors provide the knowledge this month that designers need to be aware of to make intelligent, educated decisions about embedded design. Many design and manufacturing hurdles can trip up designers who are new to this technology.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Book Excerpt: 'The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to... Manufacturing Driven Design', Chapter 3
August 29, 2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Excerpt from: The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to... Manufacturing Driven Design, Chapter 3: Why a Change is Needed
What Is Manufacturing Driven Design?
Manufacturing Driven Design is the process of providing full manufacturing awareness within the design process in a manner that allows designers to optimize a design for manufacturing with the first release.
MDD begins at the incarnation of the design idea. In the context of manufacturing, the initial step involves defining the material requirements for the stackup based on the desired electrical requirements. Once the material stackup has been established, the design layout can then be carried out. This simultaneously considers a manufacturer’s process capabilities as well as the traditional design rule check (DRC). A traditional DRC is mainly focused on copper or electrical spacing requirements and does not consider manufacturing needs.
Currently what we call DFM is not necessarily Design for Manufacturing; it’s Manufacturing in spite of Design.
This improved approach of MDD is already implemented in silicon wafer production, where the foundry’s production capabilities are taken into consideration right from the placement of the first pattern during design. This approach resulted from the skyrocketing cost of missing an assignment to a wafer production schedule and having to wait for the next opportunity. Imagine a PCB DFM release process that behaved in the same manner. Consider the financial and environmental savings if PCB manufacturers and design organizations took the same approach. The opportunity for overall PCB manufacturing and environmental improvement would be staggering. The environmental impact of excessive PCB production cannot be measured in the recovery of unneeded bare PCBs alone, but also in the extra board edge trim, wastewater—which contains copper, any number of stripping materials, tin, lead, and much, much more. Analyzing the environmental impact of PCB manufacturing is outside of this book's scope but should not be overlooked.
How Is MDD Different From DFM?
Design for Manufacturing today is seen as a step performed after the design is completed but before it is tooled for manufacturing. Often it is done with limited visibility of the applicable manufacturing partners’ process capabilities for that design technology.
Manufacturing Driven Design facilitates a more advanced level of collaboration, automation, and intelligence to achieve complete manufacturing awareness, surpassing the capabilities of DFM. In its ideal form, MDD covers all manufacturing details that can impact the yield, cost, or reliability of the PCB. It should include the following at a minimum:
- Fabrication process constraints
- Assembly process constraints
- Test process constraints
- Actual PCB material stackup to be used
- Assembly array and fabrication panel configurations
Very few manufacturers today provide their manufacturing process capabilities in a systematic, comprehensive manner to their design customers. Information is conveyed as requested, and only on the specific topic(s) at hand. Even then, it is communicated via email or a PDF of their manufacturing process capabilities specification—nothing that can be automatically acted upon within the design process. MDD provides the infrastructure to share all the necessary manufacturing process capabilities in an automated, synchronized method.
Carrying Capabilities Forward
Understanding the importance of MDD within electronics begins with the end. Ideally, manufacturing processes (fabrication, assembly, test) would be completed with the highest yield and reliability for the lowest cost possible. As the phrase “Manufacturing Driven Design” implies, the manufacturing process capabilities would be introduced at the beginning of the design process, which is carried forward throughout the process. Stated another way, a PCB design is constrained by not only the electrical requirements, but also by the manufacturing process capabilities.
Suggested Items
Designer’s Notebook: What Designers Need to Know About Manufacturing, Part 2
04/24/2024 | Vern Solberg -- Column: Designer's NotebookThe printed circuit board (PCB) is the primary base element for providing the interconnect platform for mounting and electrically joining electronic components. When assessing PCB design complexity, first consider the component area and board area ratio. If the surface area for the component interface is restricted, it may justify adopting multilayer or multilayer sequential buildup (SBU) PCB fabrication to enable a more efficient sub-surface circuit interconnect.
Insulectro’s 'Storekeepers' Extend Their Welcome to Technology Village at IPC APEX EXPO
04/03/2024 | InsulectroInsulectro, the largest distributor of materials for use in the manufacture of PCBs and printed electronics, welcomes attendees to its TECHNOLOGY VILLAGE during this year’s IPC APEX EXPO at the Anaheim Convention Center, April 9-11, 2024.
ENNOVI Introduces a New Flexible Circuit Production Process for Low Voltage Connectivity in EV Battery Cell Contacting Systems
04/03/2024 | PRNewswireENNOVI, a mobility electrification solutions partner, introduces a more advanced and sustainable way of producing flexible circuits for low voltage signals in electric vehicle (EV) battery cell contacting systems.
Heavy Copper PCBs: Bridging the Gap Between Design and Fabrication, Part 1
04/01/2024 | Yash Sutariya, Saturn Electronics ServicesThey call me Sparky. This is due to my talent for getting shocked by a variety of voltages and because I cannot seem to keep my hands out of power control cabinets. While I do not have the time to throw the knife switch to the off position, that doesn’t stop me from sticking screwdrivers into the fuse boxes. In all honesty, I’m lucky to be alive. Fortunately, I also have a talent for building high-voltage heavy copper circuit boards. Since this is where I spend most of my time, I can guide you through some potential design for manufacturability (DFM) hazards you may encounter with heavy copper design.
Trouble in Your Tank: Supporting IC Substrates and Advanced Packaging, Part 5
03/19/2024 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankDirect metallization systems based on conductive graphite or carbon dispersion are quickly gaining acceptance worldwide. Indeed, the environmental and productivity gains one can achieve with these processes are outstanding. In today’s highly competitive and litigious environment, direct metallization reduces costs associated with compliance, waste treatment, and legal issues related to chemical exposure. What makes these processes leaders in the direct metallization space?