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56 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2022 Article by Anaya Vardya AMERICAN STANDARD CIRCUITS Introduction One of the biggest challenges facing PCB designers is not understanding the cost drivers in the PCB manufacturing process. is article is the latest in a series that will discuss these cost drivers (from the PCB manufacturer's perspective) and the design decisions that will impact product reliability. What is Edge Plating? Edge plating is the encapsulation of the edges of printed circuit boards to improve EMI shielding of higher frequency designs, as well as for improving chassis ground in sys- tems. e requirement for edge plating is being implemented for single axis, as well as multiple axis edges of the circuit board, including all four edges. Edge plating is created when a rout path is implemented prior to the metallization of the circuitry features of the printed circuit board and is sometimes referred to as "plated rout." e design requirements for imple- menting this technology are dependent on the requirement for the number of edges of each board, the size of the board, and whether the boards will be delivered in a multi-up array. Stability of the material used for manufactur- ing of the board will also play a part in the devel- opment of the routing requirements. Materials where the reinforcement is not the standard glass-reinforced FR-4 type may require an alternative routing design to improve the struc- ture of the parts inside the panel that is used to carry the parts during manufacturing. e parts are processed still intact inside the car- rier panel, also called an array, used for manu- facturing and assembly, requiring the develop- DFM 101: Edge Plating Figure 1: An example of edge plating.