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52 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2024 vias or special finishes, could be calculated by multiplying the board's square footage by three times the number of metal layers. As an exam- ple, consider a board of 12" x 8" with 10 lay- ers and no special technology. is board size means a 0.8 square foot area. As each processed metal layer was estimated having a cost of $3, the estimated cost become 0.8 x 10 x 3, or $24. Now, we've reached the 2020s. In another article I wrote 6 , I describe a simple six-layer board designed and built in 2023. e board was built with regular FR-4-like laminates and had four blind-via layers: two on the top and two on the bottom. e blind vias were cop- per-filled, but not planarized. Exposed copper was gold-plated. Due to the usually fixed setup costs commonly called non-recurrent expenses (NRE), the cost was a strong function of the number of boards in small quantities. e price of these boards was around $400 each. As PCBs have evolved over the past 60 years, so have their associated costs. Now, with more efficient manufacturing, new technologies (such as 3D printing), and more automation, I expect to see even more changes in the costs of PCBs that will make them more efficient to produce, thus helping both the manufacturers and the consumers. DESIGN007 References 1. "The Future of Power Integrity through the Eyes of Experience," DesignCon 2023. 2. History of PCB Innovations and Their Impact, Millennium Circuits Limited. 3. Paul Eisner: My Life with the Printed Circuit, Associated University Press, 1989. 4. "Istvan Novak: From behind the Iron Curtain," PCM Magazine, October 2001, now available at edn.com. 5. "Is Power Integrity the New Black Magic?" Cadence eLearning Forum, April 2021. 6. "Introducing and Upcoming IEEE Packaging Benchmark," Signal Integrity Journal, April 3, 2014. Istvan Novak is the principal sig- nal and power integrity engineer at Samtec with over 30 years of experience in high-speed digital, RF, and analog circuit and system design. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, author of two books on power integrity, and an instructor of signal and power integrity courses. He also provides a website that focuses on SI and PI techniques. To read past columns, click here. Figure 4: Six-layer board stackup and material definition.