Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1401769
26 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2021 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team What do you think of when you hear the term DFM? By its very definition, design for manufacturing tends to focus on what design- ers need to do to make sure that fabricators can manufacture their boards according to design intent. But what about the flip side of this equation? What should the fabricator do to facilitate bet- ter DFM practices? e I-Connect007 Editori- al Team posed this question to a trio of design and fabrication experts: DownStream Tech- nologies co-founders Joe Clark and Rick Al- meida, and Max Clark, business unit manager for Valor at Siemens EDA. We think you'll en- joy this wide-ranging conversation. Andy Shaughnessy: We've run a lot of coverage of DFM, and it tends to be from the designer's point of view, so we wanted to get it from the other side. Because you deal with both sides of the equation, what would the fabricator like to see from the designers, as far as DFM? We've heard some designers say that fabrica- tors won't tell them their capabilities. ey'll say, "Look on our website." Joe Clark: Oen the fabricators do keep their cards close to their chest. Barry Matties: Why is that? Joe Clark: Why do fabricators gladly accept Gerbers rather than intelligent data, which is going to make the handshake that much bet- ter? Max can certainly jump in here from his experience, but many times it's nothing more than a fear that if they push them to get the intelligent data, the customer will go some- where else. But virtually every CAD tool to- day supports ODB or 2581, so obtaining these formats should not be a problem. Max Clark: at's a good question. I suggest we divide this discussion into things like data ex- change, and then maybe manufacturing ca- pabilities exchange, because they're two sep- arate topics. From a data exchange, you're DFM From the Fabricator's Point of View