Electronic Interconnect provides Design for Manufacturing (DFM) services automatically for new PCB orders, to detect, identify, and fix design problems before they reach the prototype or production stage. This saves money for customers and prevents manufacturing problems downstream, according to Shehryar Abbasi of EI’s Engineering Department. EI is a PCB fabricator, serving design engineers and contract assemblers, providing all types of PCBs from single‐sided to complex multilayer boards and Surface Mount (SMT) boards from prototype through production.
Before any PCB design goes to even tahe prototyping stage, the engineers at EI subject that design to a number of reviews and checks to make sure that the PCB that the customer requests can actually be built, Abbasi says. Quite often, designers will submit the artwork for a PCB that is superb in concept, but may not be compatible with the limits of the manufacturing process.
“A PCB design may also create issues for the assembly stage, such as a lack of solder mask between component leads that might cause bridging and shorts during the soldering process, when components are attached to the bare board. All of these things must be looked at in light of DFM, Design for Manufacturability and DRC, Design Rule Check principles and limitations. We don’t run files ‘as is’; every board that we make initially goes through a comprehensive DFM check” Abbasi says.DFM at EI includes the following checks:
- Soldermask clearances ‐ distance to keep mask away from solderable areas;
- Soldermask bridges ‐ mask between SMDs to prevent solder bridging during later assembly;
- Trace/Pad Widths & Spacing ‐ minimum spacing and trace widths, trace width tolerances allowed;
- Copper finish ‐ to determine how much artwork compensation needs to be done for chemical processes.
These are the primary checks, but there are many others. For more information and a complete listing, visit www.eiconnect.com.
