Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1509257
22 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2023 dard on Printed Board Design. Another stan- dard we provide is IPC-A-600, Acceptability of Printed Boards Endorsement. It covers class 2, class 3, and what's acceptable in board produc- tion. While we don't expect new hires to read through all the standards, we do expect them to know what's in them and where they can go to find more detailed information. Your internal documentation is largely based around IPC standards? Jen Kolar: Yes, because reading through stan- dards isn't necessarily user-friendly. So, we will have one document that includes the stan- dard's image and numbers, and then we can say, "Here's exactly what you're looking for." We condense it down to what we really need to think about day to day. Grunwald: at's right. ere's not a lot of direct design-related information in the IPC standards, like how to handle impedances, so much of our internal documentation is more design-focused than manufacturing-focused. We were joking before the interview about whether there was a "starter pack" of standards for new designers. That seems to be IPC-7351, IPC-2221, and IPC-A-600, right? Grunwald: Yes, those are definitely the ones I look at the most as a designer. Kolar: All our designers earn IPC's Certified Interconnect Designer (CID). We usually have them wait a couple of years to get their feet under them before they get their CID+, but it is a requirement that everybody has their basic CID. at said, you don't really see designers walking around the halls saying, "is standard is for this or that." Usually, designers are asking things like, "What's the distance I need to have for my copper to be pulled back from the edge for this particular fab shop?" Most people don't know everything in the standards, but we need to know where to look if we have questions. We have libraries that we've gone through and built for certain components, which are kind of "golden libraries" that designers can fol- low. We've essentially taken the standards and put together documentation that distills them down and gives designers what are essentially checklists and user guides. Cory, I understand you created Monsoon's internal documentation. Tell us about that. Grunwald: I gathered all the information and set up a training plan. Much of that internal documentation was compiled before I got here; basically, we go into more detail about tools and specifics in our documentation, such as footprints, specific layers, and naming styles that we use. We've set up smaller internal groups of designers, so new hires have some- one they can check with and ask questions. Kolar: In addition to general manuals and working documents, we have tools with spe- cific guides, and those significantly speed up the ramp-up time for designers learning new tools. We also have designers give presenta- tions regularly—at the weekly design meet- ings, for example—on ways to do things more efficiently and different ways to use the tools. Cory Grunwald