Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1337116
72 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2021 A large, reliable library of parts shortens design time and can eliminate costly errors. My colleagues and I spend our days help- ing customers with their PCB designs. Much of our effort is directed at making functional improvements, speeding the prototyping pro- cess, or finding cost savings in a design. But we do a lot of problem solving, too: "Why did this blow up? How come nothing happens when I press the 'on' button?" Issues with specialized components are a common culprit. PCBs are the foundation of every electronic device, the home for the components that make up your assembly. ose integrated cir- cuits, connectors, headers, and passives are what make it function. How it needs to func- tion determines whether standard compo- nents alone can make it work. Specialized parts are oen needed to make innovative electronic devices and that can cre- ate time-consuming challenges for the designer. Even though there are millions of parts avail- able for your designs, custom or hard-to-find parts are sometimes needed. Finding the right one is a stubborn challenge for PCB design- ers. e average design team maintains a parts library with thousands of parts, but even the largest of those contain less than one percent of what's out there. at's why designers can spend as much as 35% of their design time on the laborious and error prone process of researching and creating specialized parts. Larger organizations have librarians on staff who locate or fabr icate components that reliably meet designer specs. Absent that resource, PCB designers are le to search for what they need or create custom components themselves. Small Mistakes Can Lead to Big Problems Your datasheet will usu- ally provide what you need to locate the right part in a librar y, but those data- sheets can be complex to the p o int of r idic ulou s- n e s s . E a c h p a r t h a s a The Case for Expansive Parts Libraries Connect the Dots Feature Column by Bob Tise, SUNSTONE CIRCUITS