October 2017 • The PCB Design Magazine 75
5
True Design Efficiency:
Think Before You Click
Over the years, I have
seen a lot of different
circuit board designs. In
the service bureaus, I saw
many different design
technologies, while in
companies with captive
design departments I saw
a lot of different design methodologies. Finally, as
a CAD application engineer, I saw both different
technologies and different methodologies.
6
SnapEDA Launches Instabuild,
a Free Computer Vision-Based
Part Builder
Using a datasheet
as the input, Insta-
Build automatical-
ly extracts symbol
pinouts, under-
stands whether a
pin is an input, output or power pin, and auto-
arranges the symbols based on SnapEDA's pub-
lished symbol standards.
7
Beyond Design: When Legacy
Products No Longer Perform
Faster edge rates mean re-
flections and signal qual-
ity problems. So, even when
the package hasn't changed
and the clock speed hasn't
changed, a problem may
exist for legacy designs. The
enhancements in driver edge
rates have a significant im-
pact on signal quality, timing and crosstalk. This
also has a direct impact on radiated emissions.
8
PCB123 Launches Access to
Millions of Cloud-Based Symbols
& Footprints
Sunstone Circuits
has launched a
new integration
that allows de-
signers to search
for digital models
directly inside the PCB123 design environment.
With the release of PCB123 Version 5.6, designers
can now search and download free, cloud-based
symbols and footprints directly during design cap-
ture and layout.
9
Fault-Finding: It's All About
Prevention, not Blame
There are thousands of things
that can go wrong during the
design and manufacture of a
PCB assembly. One might say
that it is an absolute miracle
when a PCB goes through all
of its phases—design, fabrica-
tion and assembly—and op-
erates successfully!
J
IPC's CID Programme:
Is it Worth the Effort?
IPC's Certified Interconnect
Designer (CID) curricu-
lum is the definitive training
course for PCB designers
and electronic design pro-
fessionals, but with budgets
tightening and time at a
premium, is the investment
of time, effort and finance
worth it? We spoke to three recent delegates to
find out their reasons for completing the course.
PCBDesign007.com for the latest circuit design news and
information—anywhere, anytime.
