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36 The PCB Design Magazine • September 2014 It includes the PCB product matrix that de- fines all of the layers required for the PCB with their signal layers, power and ground layers or mixed layers, and the solder mask and sol- der paste layers…all listed in the correct order. Component layers are added for the top and bottom sides of the PCB, and all of the drill pairing information is included. Specific layers for routing and v-scoring information as well as documentation layers are included. Because all of this information is included in ODB++, a build-up drawing is not needed to define the layer stack. All of the physical layers detail is included such as the legend layer used during the silk-screening process, the solder mask layers for both top and bottom sides of the board, as well as all of the copper layers re- quired together with their thicknesses/weights and foil/laminate variations. This means that Gerber files, a listing of the layers, or any other readme files do not need to be sent to the PCB manufacturers, as traditionally would be done. All of the drill-pair layer information is in- cluded, and for each one of those drill-pairs lay- ers, we have a drill tool layer that includes all of the drills needed for that drill pairing and in- cludes the finished drill size as well as the type of hole, whether it is plated or non-plated, or maybe a via. This means there is no need to supply Excellon drill files, drill drawing, or any drill table to define the drilling information be- cause it is self-contained in the ODB++ product model. Often, a netlist needs to be sent to PCB fab- ricators so they can perform bare board tests. ODB++ contains netlist information. The netlist is generated directly from the PCB CAD system that contains all of the functional net names. ODB++ contains a second netlist derived direct- ly from the copper features and the drill inter- connects, and this netlist can be used to drive the bare-board test. The component layers are included in the PCB product matrix, and they carry all the Figure 1: Manufacturing processes to consider in PCB layout design for fabrication are the drilling process, etching, and galvanic plating processes. For assembly operations, key processes to consider include solder paste printing, placement, reflow, and test. feature WHAT'S NEW IN ODB++? continues