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Design007-Jan2021

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44 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team Who owns the stackup design process? Is it the OEM's design team, which is familiar with all the electrical requirements of the PCB, or the fabricator, who knows far more about the manufacturing process? We recently asked Bill Hargin, CEO of the stackup optimization software tool company Z-zero,to share his thoughts on stackup design. Bill built Z-zero around the need for software tools that can help designers facing stackup challenges. As Bill sees it, OEMs need to start exerting ownership of the stackup—and stop asking their fabricators to be responsible for stackup design. Andy Shaughnessy: I'm here with my colleague Happy Holden, and Bill Hargin, the CEO and founder of Z-zero. How are you doing, Bill? Bill Hargin: I gave myself the title Director of Everything. Shaughnessy: And you had some fairly big news recently: Z-zero is collaborating with Siemens EDA to help optimize the creation of better stackups, which is the topic of today's conversation. In our surveys, designers talk about how tough it is getting stackup right and all the trade-offs they have to make. What are your thoughts on why it's so hard to get stackup right? Hargin: I think the answer to that is simpler than what people might think, but it's very detailed. But what engineers and designers have been doing for the last 25+ years is throwing their requirements over the fence to their fabs and trusting the fabs, who over time have acquired impedance calculation and simulation tools. We know most of the tools that are out there. But that part of the PCB design process has been delegated to the fabricators for the last 25+ years. And my view is that designers and engineers need to take more control of what's happening in the stackup design process and own more of it. Bring it in-house. Siemens EDA calls it a shift-left strategy, and the concept is to take things that are known in the fabrication world and bring them to the left in the design process so that you're making

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