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34 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2021 their part of the puzzle and forget to share information, errors and frustration might develop. Designers should be careful to communicate constantly, and above all, not just share thoughts and improvements with each other, but include ever y member of the project. If you can avoid these common mistakes of narrowing down the involvement, you might be able to shave time and money off of your PCB design, and generate a more consistently high-quality project with a clear path from de- sign to production. ese initial basic phases are usually relat- ed to function, technology, choice of mate- rials, organization of layers and stackup, and electrical design requirements. e cost factor is not to be forgotten either. I have mentioned all this earlier in various contexts, and I am sure I will mention it hundreds of times in the future. Search for Mistakes Like the Eagle Searches for Prey However, here's a small sidestep focusing on the fact that when you as a designer have placed the last connection on a design, suc- cessfully ran a design rule check (DRC) with- out any error messages, and your design is still not optimized for production. I have explained this numerous times. At this phase in the project, it's time to bring out the eagle eyes and study your masterpiece. Search for improvements and mistakes, as the eagle searches for its prey, to clean up your layout. is clean-up aims to improve the design for production and thus also improve the board it- self and provide a better production yield. Bet- ter yields save time and money. As a designer, it is important to know the most critical processes, and understand the consequences of your choices at each step, as these are crucial to obtain the best possible conditions for a successful PCB production. It will benefit and generate a more consistently high-quality project. Here Are Some of My Related Tips Some of these choices may be in your CAD soware library. For example, how you have defined SMT pads in your pad-stack? I recommend that square/rectangular pads shall be defined with rounded corners (Figure 1). It is electrically good, as well as beneficial for PCB production, assembly, and soldering. What to Look Out For Improved Routing—How? Improved routing by increasing the distance between conductors, vias, and pads where possible. Move the connections so they are centered (Figure 2). Figure 3 shows more sam- ples where it is possible to increase distance between pads and traces, also between differ- ential pairs. In all the samples, traces are too close to the mechanical drilled hole. Figure 1: a) Rectangular pad; b) Same pad with rounded corners. Figure 2: a) Before moving the traces; b) After moving the traces. a) a) b) b)