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36 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2023 Feature Article by Zach Peterson NWES When I last spoke with DirectPCB cofounder Greg Papandrew, he mentioned that many boards are designed like Ferraris when what the product really needs is a Ford Pinto. ose of us who work in PCB design educa- tion, whether on corporate training or on the conference scene, tend to teach new design- ers how to build Ferraris. What we sometimes don't do so well is teach new designers how to identify whether a Pinto will get you safely to your destination. So, if you need to take your Ferrari and con- vert it to a simpler version, how can you do it without losing your form and function? Better yet, how can you avoid the Ferrari problem altogether? e operative word "simpler" could mean many things, and a designer's job in this area is to identify the "things" that create the most value in a design. is could be electrical per- formance, mechanical reliability, requirements to support a specific component type (e.g., fine-pitch BGA), or something else entirely. 1. IDENTIFY THE COST DRIVERS Any PCB that could be reasonably termed "more advanced" is more complex and thus tends to cost more. ere are several factors Avoid the 'Ferrari Problem' and Simplify Your PCB Design