Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1408619
30 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2021 engineering team. One should avoid shops that offshore their front-end engineering to other countries in favor of shops that have in- house expertise. By maintaining a partnership with your PCB manufacturer, the handoff will be as seamless as it would be to a member of your own team. Just like the recipe for a good team, a partner- ship with a PCB manufacturer requires both parties to have technical knowledge, open communication, and an understanding of your design goals. It also requires mutual trust. Design advice from a qualified manufacturer should drive the design to higher reliability and lower cost. is partnership relies on you letting your manufacturer know where you are and where you plan to go in the future. Helping your manufacturer to grow with you and build the technologies you want to implement creates a robust supply chain. Even if you are a smaller designer and you aren't anticipating being influential in the future of your manufacturer, communicating your goals will result in higher quality products. ese partnerships aren't built overnight, but they have the potential to drive technology and innovation, while reduc- ing cost, reducing waste, and building more reliable products in the future. We hear from designers all the time who aren't sure if we would even want to answer their questions. As a board designer and DFM engineer, I can tell you that we are ready to answer your questions at any stage in your design process. We have acted as a sounding board for new ideas, introducing new milling and plating processes to reduce downstream manufacturing costs and increase part reli- ability. We review stackups for material avail- ability, dielectric performance, ease of acqui- sition, impedance requirements, lamination characteristics, and cost. We are driving the technologies that bring 25-micron lines and spaces to U.S. domestic manufacturing, largely driven by discussions with designers who push the envelope of tech- nology. A true collaboration is the solution to bringing back domestic capability and capac- ity. Our largest customers know that demand- ing higher yields won't get them better prices. ey know that developing partnerships through open communication can lead to bet- ter designs and manufacturing improvements. A great example of partnership is one that we recently developed with a customer designing a new phased-array radar board. e customer could not procure boards (with advanced technologies beyond standard capabilities) at required volumes in less than a 26-week lead time. Instead of moving on to the next sup- plier, the customer agreed to work with us to develop the specific capabilities and we dedi- cated a team of engineers to complete the qualifications and prototyping in a nine-month time frame, three months sooner than antici- pated. At the end of the prototyping phase, we had reduced the manufacturing lead time to five weeks, simultaneously reducing costs through supply-chain collaboration including a switch to a more manufacturable and domes- tically sourced material supplier, who offered superior lead times and technical support. By investing time and energy into this collabora- tion, this customer now has a technologically capable PCB manufacturer that they can work with on current and future designs, and we have new capabilities to offer our entire cus- tomer base. Whether you are incorporating a new tech- nology for the first time or just want a second look at your impedance stackup, it is better to discuss designs in advance than have your manufacturer put your order on hold. Reach out, make connections, and build a partner- ship. Your PCB manufacturer wants to help you. DESIGN007 Ian Huibregtse, CID, is a senior CAM engineer/developer at Calumet Electronics.