From PCB Design to PCB Fabrication

Too often the information en-route from PCB Design to PCB Fabrication is not conveyed properly, resulting in poor boards, higher costs, design re-spins, and ultimately slower product time-to-market. However, these problems can be avoided through careful planning, thorough communication, and proper documentation from the design-end.

A simple view of a typical product cycle from PCB Design to PCB Fabrication is shown below.

At Electronic Interconnect, at the Prototype Fabrication stage, we have seen a plethora of issues which could have been avoided if the Design Engineer had only provided the correct documentation and data for manufacturing the PCB. Some of the main issues are highlighted in the red box above. Overall, going back to the Design Engineer for documents, such as a dimensional drawing of the PCB, result in loss of time and money for all parties involved. Major issues which cause slowdown at the Prototype stage occur after a design-for-manufacturing check finds errors which will impede moving forward due to technology constraints; this is to say when no such constraints were intentionally added by the Design Engineer. For example, small annular rings around Vias, exceptionally thin trace widths and spacings, or antennas and electrical shorts, missing layers, missing drawings and notes; these issues will halt all operations in the engineering department before going to the plant floor. This will, in-turn, mean that the Design Engineer will have to go through each of these issues and either provide waivers to continue as-is, or a new set of fixed data.

In conclusion, valuable time can be saved with a concentrated effort at the design stage to provide proper documentation and cleaner data for efficient PCB fabrication!

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