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SEPTEMBER 2019 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 39 The Basics Are Rooted in Complexity When ODB was first introduced, the com- plexity of designs was primarily in the 4–6-lay- er range with lines/spaces just reaching eight mils, and only one drill pass was required to connect all the layers together. These were sim- pler times when compared to today's require- ments. Yet in 2018, the production value for PCBs in the 4–6-layer range was about $15.5 billion. For layer counts of eight to 16, the PCB production value was about half ($7.6 billion). Over time, we have determined how to include more complexity in 4–6-layer designs. This required manufacturing processes to evolve; therefore, the product model for manufactur- ing those same designs also had to improve. ODB is a defined foundation that represents a digital twin of the product to be manufac- tured. As the complexity of PCB designs in- creased, the data required to represent the digital twin multiplied at an alarming rate. Mainstream eight-layer designs became the norm, at least in part, but at the same time, lines/spaces moved to six mils and then to four mils at times while maintaining the same or less production area of the previous board designs. Another way to look at this is that the density of the copper routes on a design increased significantly, and the amount of data required increased at the same rate, if not more (Figure 5). Drill processes also increased in complexity with the introduction of blind, buried, filled, and back-drilled through-holes, and the repre- sentation had to be added to the product mod- el. PCB designs that were once all a rigid form became flexible. Then rigid-flexible was intro- duced with rigid and flexible areas existing in multiple stackup zones within a single board design. The number of manufacturing process combinations seems almost limitless. As ODB++ began to obtain broader adoption, the supporters recognized the need for compo- nent-related content to be included within the product model. The initial purpose was to pro- vide the ability to review components through the introduction of assembly analysis solu- tions. Later, assembly programming solutions Figure 4: Proper design data management involves clearing a variety of hurdles.