Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1511130
10 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2023 It's safe to say that millions of dollars, not to mention man-hours, are wasted each year because of over-constrained, overly compli- cated PCB designs. Much of this is due to the increase in signal speeds and rise times, even in "mature" PCBs, and the extra cost is already part of the budget. For this issue on simplifying PCB designs, the I-Connect007 Editorial Team spoke with IPC instructor Kris Moyer about ways that designers can avoid overconstraining their designs and making them needlessly complex. As Kris says, streamlining your design comes down to having a solid understanding of fab and assembly processes and the silicon trade- offs that can simplify or overcomplicate your design, as well as the need to start working with fabricators early in the cycle. Simplifying Your Design Andy Shaughnessy: What are some typical snafus and missteps that you see designers make to overcomplicate their designs? Kris Moyer: Here's what oen happens: Let's say you have one connector on your board that needs tight tolerance. But rather than dimen- sioning to just that connector, locally, design- ers will do a tight tolerance to the data from the global dimensioning system, which now con- strains the entire board. Or, if they need perfect coplanarity on a BGA part for good BGA mounting, they'll put co-planarity back over the entire board where they don't need it, because regular chips, gull- wings, and so on don't need the same amount of coplanarity as a BGA—or they'll try to hold layer tolerances: "I need a 2-mil layer plus or minus 10%," because they know that 10% is Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team