Clear communication with manufacturers can ease that queasy feeling.

You are finally finished with that very complex monster of a printed circuit board (PCB) design while enduring a very tight project schedule. Now it's time to get the design data to manufacturing for fabrication and assembly, but there is a lingering doubt in the back of your mind, an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach as you hand off data to manufacturing. Why? I'll explain, based on my perspective gleaned from decades of designing PCBs.

Let me start with a question: Did you collaborate with your manufacturing suppliers up front? The answer for many is typically "No!" You may have simply designed a PCB without any manufacturer involvement whatsoever, generated output files and threw the data over the proverbial wall to the manufacturer in hopes that what you designed is buildable and will work as intended. Then, when a technical query (TQ) hits your inbox, you might get upset and wonder why you're being notified that the job is on hold because the design data contain issues or are missing information that needs to be addressed before fabrication can begin. In some cases, it's not just answering with a reply of "approved to modify as suggested," but rather it requires going back and redesigning! Sadly, this happens in our industry far too often, and in more instances than you would expect.

A common component library aids engineering integration.

As I mentioned in my column last month, PCB design best practices have five pillars. The first pillar, digitally integrated and optimized, is the foundation. It specifically addresses interactions within the design process and how multidiscipline and multidomain integration and collaboration should take place.

This leads me to pose a simple question: Is your engineering team digitally integrated and optimized when it comes to MCAD-ECAD co-design, or is it functioning with a legacy approach that contains many manual efforts/tasks while team members are working in silos?

Every PCB design starts with the design of the physical package/box (the system) where the PCB will reside. As this occurs, the physical features of the PCB are defined. These features include items such as the dimensions of the PCB outline; board thickness; mounting holes; tooling holes; restricted areas/rooms such as specific components' height ceilings; component keep-ins and keep-outs; critical components such as connectors, heatsinks and sub-assemblies; plus any other pertinent critical features and or details.