Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1337116
14 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2021 be lining this footprint up with. at's going to be your first level of QC, but I've actually seen where there's a second level of QC that's done. Once that part has been verified to the data- sheet, that part then goes into what's called the prototype status; what it does is that compo- nent is then put onto a PCB, kind of a live test. When that board comes back with the com- ponent on it, you look at it under the scope to see if there are any issues with the soldering. It's like a real-world environment. ose are the two levels of QC. Number one, you com- pare it to the documentation, and then you have a real-world environment that you take it through. at step and those processes are what you go through. at way, you've actu- ally had both sides of it: You have your side of it, and then also the assembler's side of it. I've found that a lot of times, believe it or not—I know it's a shocking comment I'm about to make—but datasheets have been known to be wrong. VPs have no understanding of what it takes to put a PCB design out—the steps, the checks that you have to do, all these different things. Oen, that's lost in this whole process. Matties: You mentioned time is a critical factor, but what about communication? Watson: at's huge. Especially on the commu- nication. Cool Hand Luke had it right in the movie: What we have here is a failure to com- municate. Dan Feinberg: John, along with what you were just saying, so many customers are saying the footprint is so wrong. I mean, they're empha- sizing that. Do designers not realize that the footprints are so wrong or deemed to be so wrong? What's happening with the communi- cation that they should be so surprised that it's wrong? Watson: I would totally agree with that. ere is a huge lack of communication. Especially with what I've seen for the past year, with everything that's been going on. Teams have been put into a lean mode, where you don't have as many people working on projects any- more. e very first rule of QC is not to check your own work. You never QC your own work. You always have another set of eyes look at it and then line it up with the verification docu- ments. Too oen now, that is being skipped over. With that said, another issue that comes up a lot is that minimal pieces of that footprint are put in. If you took a footprint of a component, it's a cookie cutter; each footprint should have exactly the same thing in it. ere should be the copper, solder paste, and the solder mask. ere should then be the placement court- yard for that component, and there should be assembly information in that footprint. But because of time and manpower issues, short- cuts are taken, and every time you take a short- cut in a PCB design, it's absolutely adding risk to that design. It's something you just can't play around with when it comes to the PCB design. When I joined Legrand, an engineer pulled me aside to his desk, and opened a drawer half- full of FR-4 boards. He said, "ose were our John Watson