Design007 Magazine

Design007-May2021

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40 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2021 Greetings! is month, I'm offering my top six design challenges, with some additional feedback from Jeff Reinhold, one of the own- ers at Monsoon Solutions. Narrowing it down to the top six was tough, because there are so many challenges for today's board designers—from incomplete information and footprint generation to power routing constraints. ese are just some of my thoughts and is by no means a complete list of all of today's design challenges. Every designer has his or her own challenges; what is easy for some may be a challenge to others. I will be interested in reading the different approaches to this topic. Here's my countdown: #6: Inaccurate or Less Than Helpful App Notes or Part PDFs As a board designer we are constantly refer- ring to component datasheets and app notes for information helpful to layout and design. Many of these datasheets are very short and do not have enough information regarding device layout; they may have some technical app notes and a pinout but little information other than that relative to board design. Even worse, some are over 300 pages long, and most of the information is more relevant to an EE than to a board designer, thus requiring the designer to weed through the mountain of data to glean what they really need. In my short time as a board designer, I have seen both. Many do show layout solutions and design suggestions, but some are not really the best way to place the parts such as resistors and capacitor location suggestions. So why are these datasheets so oen misleading or less than helpful? Here are some possible reasons: • Understanding that everything is application-based and the engineer writing these app notes cannot possibly cover every contingency plan or every possible application. My Top Six Design Challenges The Bare (Board) Truth Feature Column by Mark Thompson, CID+, MONSOON SOLUTIONS Jeff Reinhold

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