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Monday, December 16, 2013

PCB Design Services And Solutions

By Jeannie Chapman


PCB design services require skilled designers who know how to come up with an optimum physical layout for a printed circuit board. They use cutting-edge CAD tools and other PCB design software that helps them create all kinds of board designs. No matter what sort of board and layout is required to be made, it's always going to be a multi-stage designing process starting with schematic capture.

Information about three key aspects of the project must be provided by the client to the designer. The schematic is obviously the most important thing. Note that it may also be in the netlist format. The netlist file contains the circuit's connectivity details and descriptions for the components.

The BOM or bill of materials is another key requirement which contains a listing of all the components to be used and their footprints. Some designers offer to do the component footprint capture process too. All this and the board outline together provide the designer with everything needed for getting started with the design process.

Designers start with the netlist or schematic and use techniques such as library development, signal integrity checks, thermal simulation, stress analysis, EMI checking, etc. The series of intermediate steps lead to the development of a file in the gerber format. This is the final end product that designers hand over as a complete PCB image that is directly used in the manufacturing process.

Designers must be able to work on complex solutions involving everything from digital and analog to RF circuits and mixed PCBs. The board can be designed as per specifications as a single or double sided board, or a multi-layered one. The size is also likely to vary, and so will other factors such as component quantities and pin densities.

The designer also has to decide the board characteristics. This is the method that must be used for mounting components and creating circuit traces. The most popular technique that is now in use is called surface-mount technology.

Under this method, end caps will be soldered on the same side of the board as the component itself. This is a huge improvement over an earlier system that made use of through-hole boards. These older boards required the leads to be inserted from one side and soldered on the traces on the board's other side.

Designing new boards is just one part of the services offered by PCB designers. They may also be asked to perform other functions such as evaluate designs, along with the components used and their footprints. Clients sometimes ask them to assist with procurement of prototypes and check for availability and pricing information against the BOM contents.

As a matter of fact, PCB design services continue to be required even after the product is delivered. Customers frequently need to make changes, and reorders bring a lot more business. Reverse engineering is another service that needs a highly skilled designer. In this case, the designer is given the gerber file and must come up with the schematic or netlist, which the client can then use for making wide-ranging changes.




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