Design007 Magazine

56 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2021 horror stories and successes—that have helped me hone my DFM skill set over the years. Captive Designers: Gambling With Zero DFM Review Years ago, I designed PCBs for a Nevada gaming company. Part of my job as a cap- tive PCB designer was to evaluate incoming "engineering queries" (EQs) about our PCB designs as they transitioned from our internal, low-volume assembly line operation to high- volume PCB manufacturers in Asia and for assembly in Mexico. As the only PCB designer in our company who had completed the IPC CID and CID+ programs, I considered myself a staunch advocate for DFM. I had learned of the importance of considering the needs of the other PCBA project stakeholders, and I took every opportunity to learn about their jobs and capabilities. But our designs were occasionally falling short of important DFM attributes required for a trouble-free assembly experience. In short, we had no peer review process. We were three unique PCB designers with three different Feature Article by Kelly Dack PCEA For the past five years I have spent the first several hours of each working day communi- cating with a wide variety of offshore manu- facturers about customer PCB design issues. I must say, it has been an eye-opening experi- ence. Not only have I learned a lot about PCB manufacturing capabilities and challenges around the world but also about the design for manufacturability (DFM) attitude and apti- tude of a wide cross-section of North Ameri- can PCB designers and design engineers. I have been working for a Pacific Northwest electronic manufacturing services (EMS) pro- vider since 2015. A critical part of the business is helping companies that seek to move their electronics products from working prototypes to offshore volume production, all to meet cost-down goals. I have felt up to the task, as I've been on my own journey toward the optimum DFM pro- cess for decades. Allow me to share some of the valuable lessons learned—along with the

• Design007 Magazine — May 2021
• Feature Contents — Top Design Challenges
• Additional Contents
• Flex007 Contents
• Column — What Are Your Top Design Challenges?
• Feature Interview — PCB Design Challenges: Designing With DDR
• Feature Article — The Top Five Reasons Products Fail EMI Testing
• Column — A Closer Look at Surface Finish
• Short — Machine Learning Algorithm Helps Unravel the Physics Underlying Quantum Systems
• Feature Column — My Top Six Design Challenges
• Feature Article — Planning and Communication: Key to Optimizing Your Design Time
• Short — Canon Medical Expands AI-Based Image Reconstruction Technology
• Column — DDR Routing—and Other Big Fish in the Lake of Technology
• Feature Article — My Ongoing Journey Toward DFM
• PCB007 Highlights
• Article — Analyzing Complex High-Density PCBs With Online DFM
• Short — Scientists Glimpse Signs of a Puzzling State of Matter in a Superconductor
• Column — Test for Design—How Do You Measure Up?
• Short — Book Excerpt 'The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to… Thermal Management: A Fabricator's Perspective,' Chapter 2: IMPCBs or MCPCBs
• Feature Article — Meeting the Challenge With Design Reuse
• MilAero007 Highlights
• Column — Pin-Out Challenge: Rethink the Solution
• Short — A Roundup of Stackup Coverage
• Column — Conformal Coating vs. Encapsulation Resin
• Short — New Method Measures Super-Fast, Free Electron Laser Pulses
• Flex007 Column — Designing Via-in-pad for Higher-Density Flexible Circuits
• Short — Plastic Logic's Colour Display Revolutionizes Smart Wearables
• Flex007 Highlights
• Flex007 Column — Process Flow for Occam QFN Test Vehicle
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