Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1500943
28 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2023 Mark Wolfe IPC Executive EMS Advisor What is your main concern for PCB designers? As component lead counts increase and lead spacing decreases, the potential for defects in the manufacturing process has grown as well, resulting in industrywide increases in rework and scrap costs. e most recent IPC Qual- ity Survey showed that the costs of rework and repair have grown by 2x or more over the past four years. At a minimum, rework costs for many newer components require more expensive equipment and/or more time- consuming processes. In a growing number of products, full PCBAs may need to be scrapped as some of these complex components may have heat limitations or may be inaccessible to even allow for proper rework. e potential for difficult or impossible rework that can result from tight package-to- package spacing or package heights can oen be avoided with the proper emphasis during PCB design. Rework and scrap concerns have not been a historic point of emphasis for PCB designers, at least not until fairly recently. Regardless, the PCB design community can play a significant role in mitigating these grow- ing costs by putting a much greater focus on design for rework and scrap as they make PCB design and layout tradeoffs in the future. What issue do you think PCB designers should be more aware of? As the electronics manufacturing world has experienced some of the painful implica- tions of lean, but ultimately fragile, supply chains over the past few years, there has been greater emphasis placed on multi-sourcing of key components. Raw PCBs generally fall into this category and companies that are try- ing to be more agile in dealing with disrup- tions are thinking differently about their PCB sourcing. e more that PCB designers can proac- tively keep options open without sacrificing design parameters or creating undue risk, the better. Try to specify and test multiple mate- rials that meet your requirements whenever you can. You should design panels that are reasonably optimized for multiple PCB suppliers as well and avoid tuning yourself to a single source. It won't be commercially via- ble in all cases, but having the option will be beneficial. What problem should PCB designers be more aware of? Virtually any PCB design tool today will gen- erate a data file for stencil generation, subject to default rules and/or whatever rules the PCB designers may implement. In most cases, those files are directly transmitted to the stencil supplier. Mark Wolfe