Getting it right the first time: The way that our PCB tools are helping out...

By: Steve Hageman AnalogHome.com Printed Circuit Board Design has really changed little in the last 20 years. Sure we have BGA's now and parts so small that hey are hard to see with the naked eye. But the CAD tool doesn't care about size just zoom in and the parts and traces are bigger again. The same basic PCB tools that were used in the 20th century are in use today (Figure 1). What is different then? Time. We have less time to get the job done and fewer chances to get the job done right. Some people even talk about the need for no prototyping at all that the design must be: Designed and launched straight into production. As a designer, whether you think that is possible or not depends on the complexity of the task given to you. Most designers however, would would probably agree that if it could be done, it would be a good thing in terms of time and investment needed to launch a new product. As Engineers and designers we know what to do when we aren't exactly sure if something is right. We know that we need to test to see if what we have designed is going to have the proper form, fit and function. Historically this has been done with prototype cycles. We have traditionally designed something, then built actual hardware that tested the form, fit and function - correcting what didn't work out along the way and repeating the cycle as required. We now have simulation tools for software and hardware so that we can do really quite amazing and accurate work before we build actual hardware. What has been lacking is this same tight integration from our EE tools to the mechanical domain. For decades we have had DXF transfer of our PCB shapes to the Mechanical Engineering world where the final mechanical assembly could be Built in Software before committing to actual hardware. This has required us as PCB designers to be dependent on the Mechanical Engineering Group (if we even have these resources to work with) and in this global world, they might be 12 time zones away. There is nothing inherently wrong with this just as there was nothing wrong with generating our Gerber files and sending them off to the Board Shop where they would run their expensive CAM tool and check the film against their process design rules. When Page 1 of 8

we acquired low cost CAM tools so that we could do the same checks on our desktops we got immediate feedback and could fix things before we sent the job out and that resulted in fewer Engineering Holds and that all important: Immediate Feedback. Immediate feedback is the key to increased productivity, fewer errors and faster cycle times. It allows us to immediately see the results of our work and immediately fix issues as they crop up. This is different than the old batch process where the design was pushed from department to department with the resultant delays and slow feedback times. In the last few years we have used the process of transferring our PCB (usually via DXF) to the ME's where they have placed the very minimum of parts on the boards. This usually amounted to just the I/O connectors and perhaps a few tall or big components to check for overall clearance issues. The Altium Designer series (AD) [1] has given us the next step in this productivity chain during the PCB design process: Tight Integration with 3D Models. The AD tool has for a while now integrated FPGA code and board design tightly. AD has also allowed us to visualize our PCB's in 3D space. AD allows all of our PCB components to be modeled as simple 3D extrusions that can be assembled to build pretty complex shapes or imported as 3D STEP bodies, which most 3D CAD packages can export to (Figure 2). Previously to use this 3D capability to the full potential has still required transferring the design to the ME group to Fit together the finished soft design. This was because the required 3D Bodies of standard cases, chassis components and hardware pieces have not been readily available. Recently though, this has started to change. Many chassis and hardware parts type of companies have begun to supply 3D STEP models of their parts for anyone to use. The intended use is mostly targeted to the ME community for use in the 3D CAD programs, but we as Board designers can now put this trend to good use. With AD we can import not only the 3D PCB mounted parts, but we can now import the entire mechanical housing in many cases. Companies like Hammond Manufacturing [2] and others [3,4] are providing full 3D models of nearly all of their parts.

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Having the ability, as a board designer, to fit our PCB into the intended housing exactly when we need the work done and in our PCB design tool is a big productivity booster (Figure 3). Not only can we check for fit issues, but we can generate realistic looking assembly drawings all from within one design tool, the PCB design tool. Even if the final production output will be done by the ME or Production Engineering group, being able to check for form, fit and function issues when the design is being worked on is one of the ways to reduce cycle time and increase the likelihood of Getting it right the first time. In the past we would either take our best shot at it and build the hardware or we would give the finished design files to the ME group for them to check. In the worst case, how many of us have had to printout 1:1 plots of our board and then lined them up with the other hardware paper doll style to be sure that everything fit? I know that I have. Every time we have to transfer files away from our desktop we have the possibility of having to wait in someone else's work queue and if this is an iterative process the queues can eat up an appreciable amount of time. How much better to have been able to check the design ourselves, where the work is done exactly when it is needed. This will give a higher probability that the board design fits the intended application with no errors. Even if the chassis or PCB mount isn't readily available as a 3D model, having your ME group draw it up and export it early on in the design process as a 3D STEP body that allows us as Board Designers to import it into AD will allow a more immediate feedback process during the design. Tools like Altium Designer and Hardware manufacturers that are supplying 3D bodies of their parts are leading the way to the really first significant change in the way we design PCB's as a Total Package. With the ever increasing complexity of our designs and the need for decreased prototype cycles, tool advances like this start to make the idea of: Straight to production a more realistic sounding proposition.

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Footnotes: [1] The Altium Designer PCB/FPGA design package is available by visiting: www.Altium.com [2] Hammond Manufacturing supplies a number of 3D STEP bodies for their enclosure product line via their website at: www.HammondMfg.com [3] Samtec has an ever increasing supply of 3D STEP bodies of their connectors available via their website at: www.Samtec.com [4] A free and growing source of 3D bodies suitable for use with Altium Designer is available at 3D Content Central - www.3dcontentcentral.com Author Information: Steve Hageman has always looked for ways to decrease the cycle time and improve the accuracy of his designs. The first PCB design he did himself was done in AutoCAD way back in 1986 and he hasn't looked back at Doughnut Pads and Tape since. Currently Steve serves a variety of clients designing and building virtual instruments and other electronic products with the goal of Straight to Production always in mind. Steve may be reached via his website at www.AnalogHome.com.

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Figure 1: Is this a screen shot of a 1980's PCB tool or a modern one? From a: Wiring up parts on a board perspective the basic PCB tool interface has changed little for decades.

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Figure 2: Altium Designer allows the importing of 3D STEP bodies or the creation of relatively complex bodies using extruded shapes such as cylinders and polygons to make up the basic Visual Footprints for the parts that we place on our boards. The white SMA connector was provided by Samtec, the Gold colored Edge Launch connector was modeled entirely with the tools provided within Altium Designer.

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Figure 3: Now many manufacturers of hardware type parts like Hammond Manufacturing [2] are supplying 3D STEP models of their products that can be directly imported into modern PCB design tools like Altium Designer. This allows board designers to check PCB fit directly in the PCB design tool instead of exporting to a Mechanical CAD tool. Not only can the mechanical parts be imported, but Altium will preform rules based clearance checks and warn if a part on the board hits a part of the imported STEP model.

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Figure 4: With Altium Designer we now have one of the final pieces needed during the design process available to us as PCB designers the ability to fully assemble and visualize our design when we need it, not when it is convenient for someone else to do. This immediate feedback allows for rapid discovery of potential problems and is the next step in the promise of: Getting it right the first time. Page 8 of 8