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JUNE 2020 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 93 providing objective information on average thickness, standard deviation, and the ability of the production process to deliver the end product within specifi- cation limits. The front and rear copper balancing layers could be output as Gerber files and used to update the board design in the CAD system. Why had designers not used simulation techniques in the past? Why would they change? Belis described the situation 10 years ago. Maybe the capability of computer simulation systems was not as ad- vanced, but even if it had been, a typical atti- tude was, "I know what I'm doing. I've been doing it for 30 years." But if they got into trou- ble and "the house caught fire," they would have to call the "fire department"—special- ists from outside who would resolve the prob- lem using simulation techniques. "Maybe we ought to consider using these tools to stop the fire from starting in the first place rather than relying on guesswork and classic trial-and-er- ror approaches," Belis stated. The facility to improve the design was dem- onstrated, but what happens when the upgrad- ed data reaches the CAM engineer at the PCB manufacturer? They are responsible for setting up the layout of the production panel. The in- dividual circuit layout has been optimised for plating. But whether the panel consists of a multiple of identical design or a composite of several different designs, the copper pattern- plating process will not produce identical In an illuminating discussion with Robrecht Belis, manager of surface finishing and e-coat- ing with Elsyca NV in Belgium, I learned that nothing could be further from the truth, provid- ed they act on time and use the right tools, as he referred me to Elsyca's white paper on plating simulation. Beginning with the designer, and with regard to my earlier comment that many design- ers would benefit from a bet- ter understanding of the basics of plating distribution when configuring their outer layers, Belis explained how Elsyca's PCB- Balance simulation software made the task straightforward. It predicted the copper thick- nesses to expect, with reference to a virtual model of the production copper plating bath with realistic electrochemical characteristics. The software offered the option to use its auto- intelligent copper balancing algorithm to add non-functional dummy copper features—and thereby increase the uniformity of finished copper thickness without compromising the design—and to visualise the thickness distri- bution using an interactive graphical display. Once the algorithm had completed its optimi- sation, any out-of-specification thickness is- sues were automatically resolved. The proce- dure only took a few minutes, working directly from a simple Gerber input. And the software integrated well with existing design tools. The before and after versions of the design could be compared side-by-side with graphics Robrecht Belis