Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine

Features

Tight spacing (less than 8 mils) between drilled holes and copper traces increases fabrication complexity and yield risk.

In the world of PCB manufacturing, knowledge of manufacturing constraints can help you design PCB using techniques that can guarantee reliable, economical and high-yield manufacturing. A wrong approach at the PCB layout stage can impact the complexity and cost of its fab and assembly. Understanding this enables you to develop smart practical design solutions for economical manufacturing and rapid prototyping cycles.

Ultra HDI changes the design for manufacturability equation.

As more teams begin to explore ultra HDI, one of the early surprises is just how different the design for manufacturability (DfM) conversation becomes. HDI gave us a playbook to follow, and many designers could recite those spacing and registration rules from memory. UHDI shifts that comfort zone. This technology opens remarkable routing opportunities, but it also requires us to revisit assumptions we have relied on for years.

Without the right context, AI gives answers that sound right but can quietly derail manufacturing decisions.

It’s 9:15 AM on a Tuesday, and Maria – your rising star process engineer – is about to make a $50,000 mistake.

She asked AI a simple question: “What’s the recommended cure temperature for FR-4 laminate?” The answer came back instantly, confidently: “Cure at 180°C for 90 minutes.” She’s two clicks away from updating the work instruction that will go to the production floor for today’s run of 24 panels.

Like a building foundation, the stackup supports every layer above it.

The way the printed circuit board layers shown in Figure 1 are arranged is called a stackup. It’s one of the most important constructs in a PCB design. In many ways, it’s configured just like the foundation of a building. If the stackup is weak or poorly planned, for example, everything built on it will suffer from instability, no matter how good the circuit design is.

Where excess inventory stops being clutter and starts being currency.

For years, companies have treated excess electronic components like an embarrassing secret. They get over-purchased, boxed up and quietly written off – destined for the trash, the gray market or whatever corner of the warehouse no one wants to inventory.

And according to startup founder Margaret Upshur, the bill for that silence is massive.

With ultra-high-density interconnect design, small features come with big decisions.

Ultra HDI (UHDI) has become a prominent part of the PCB design conversation, often presented as “the next frontier” in density and miniaturization. But before we move on to advanced routing strategies and design techniques, let’s establish a solid practical foundation. What is the difference between UHDI and the HDI processes, which so many designers have already learned to rely on? Why does the shift in the underlying process matter, and when does it become worth incorporating into mainstream design work? We will address those questions here.