Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - Current Issue

Current Issue

From CAD competency to task focus, the reasons add up.

The real question is, why do you need a professional anything? Remember that plumbing project that went terribly wrong? After hours of cleaning the mess, listening to your spouse yell and finally hiring a plumber, you were able to flush the toilet again! Well, your next upcoming design could result in a similar situation, only instead it will be your boss yelling at you – and perhaps your spouse too, since you will have to work all those extra hours to fix the situation.

On a serious note, the use of a professional PCB designer should be seen not as an expense but rather as an investment in the future of your company, one that will always have a positive ROI.

Here are a few of the benefits of using a career designer:

They are trained specifically in design. The professional designer has the experience and training needed to get your design completed using the latest manufacturing techniques. Typically they have a broader background, giving them the ability to use knowledge from previous experiences to ensure a design’s success.

The domino effect. One minor design decision can cost a significant amount of money over the life of a product, and you may never know it. The designer is responsible for bringing the three major areas together – engineering, bare board manufacturing and electronics assembly – and balancing the cost tradeoffs to produce the most cost-effective product possible. It is not about avoiding the obvious potholes, but rather the little things that add up over time.

Focus. Having a design house or an internal designer handle the job of layout will free up the resources of the electrical engineer, allowing them time in the lab or to work on another board. It also allows a single focus on what can be a complex task. This usually leads to faster design time, because the designer will use the layout software on a daily basis and know it better than an occasional user.

We live in a world of specialists. The process of bringing a new product to market should be no different. Find the best-in-class, whether it is your electrical engineer, layout professional or your EMS facility, because your product is worth it.

W. Scott Fillebrown is president and CEO of ACD (acdusa.com); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. His column runs bimonthly.

Lenora Toscano

A rough topography aids reliability even while it complicates wet processing.

Read more: A ‘Promoter’ for Solder Mask Adhesion

Nick Koop

Design tricks for tight bends.

Since you are designing flex layers into a circuit, it’s a safe bet that circuit is intended to bend. The key question is, will it survive being bent, twisted or otherwise contorted? When considering flexing, focus on a few key variables: the flex thickness, bend radius, bend angle and number of bend cycles over a lifetime. Some flexes operate in dynamic applications that experience continued flexing. Examples include the hinge in a laptop, a printer head, a drawer-type movement or a rotating mechanism. Other applications involve a limited number of bend cycles, where the circuit is bent into position and may move again during product servicing. Finally, some circuits bend into place and never move, experiencing only minor vibration. Let’s start with the static applications. Generally, if the part is bending less than 60°, it is almost impossible to cause damage. The IPC rule of thumb for static bending is simple. For one or two copper layer designs, the bend radius should be 10X the thickness of the flex. For three or more copper layers bonded together, the rule is 20X the thickness of the flex.