Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1401769
10 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2021 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team In this experts interview, Dana Korf, Mark ompson, and Happy Holden discuss DFM, but not from the designer's point of view. In- stead, we wanted to know what DFM means to the fabricator. ey delve deeply into the complicated exchange of information between designers and fabricators, the role of soware tools in this formula, and why the entire indus- try revolves around checking incoming data. Andy Shaughnessy: Dana, what would you like to see as far as DFM from the fab side? Dana Korf: Everyone knows my view. I'd like DFM to just go away. It's a non-value-add func- tion from a Lean standpoint. I was with a cus- tomer last week and we talked about this. I said, "I wish we could go back to the '70s when we took a design from our OEM, we built it, and we sent the board back to him." Right now, we must assume that the data is bad coming in. And what does "bad" mean? I break it into three elements. One, the fabricators are not good at giving the designers the rules that they want, that the engineering group uses to de- sign against. Second, the soware tools actual- ly can't even include all the rules that are used to review a design. ird, we still use non-intelligent data, the Gerber exchange methodology, instead of more intelligent methods like ODB++ or IPC- 2581. So, there's a lot of manual intervention interpreting data. And we send duplicate data out. ey will send a Gerber and an ODB file and they're different. Which one is right? We'll send a fab print and the Gerber data. ey con- flict, so which one is right? So, fabricators must assume the data coming in is not good. My experience talking to people in this area is 90-95% of the data packages need to be mod- ified or at least should be questioned. I've nev- er met a designer who intentionally designs bad. It's the design knowledge transfer system that's the problem. Mark Thompson: I agree with Dana. e prob- lem with IPC-2581 from a fabrication stand- point is that you are obligated as the fabricator to review all the sets of data that are included. A Fabricator's View of DFM Processes