Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1538269
6 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2025 Most of the time, we cover topics that design- ers say are giving them trouble. But designers don't usually cite floor planning as one of their big- ger challenges. No, it's the fabricators who say that floor planning is an ongoing problem for their designer brethren, usually after having to put yet another job on hold. Floor planning is the time to be proactive. As some of our contributors point out in this issue, floor planning is like laying out the buildings in a city or setting up furniture in a new home. But it's not just a matter of making everything fit in the appropriate form factor. There are dozens—sometimes, hundreds—of tradeoffs to be addressed while balancing electri- cal performance with physical and cost constraints. Decisions made during floor planning can impact performance, manufacturability, and project time- lines. Stackup choices can haunt you far down- stream. Component placement can impact sig- nal integrity, and lead to even more tradeoffs that compromise routing efficiency. The likelihood of error rises as the pitch shrinks. According to some estimates, 30% of HDI fail- ures can be traced to poor placement decisions. T H E S H AU G H N ES SY R E P O RT A Plan for Floor Planning by Andy Shaughnessy, I-C onne ct0 07 Increasingly tinier BGA pitches can make zoning a nightmare while upping the risk of cross- talk, and grouping ICs with thermal problems can create hotspots that affect reliability. There are so many ways to go wrong during floor plan- ning. But don't worry, this month's contributors weigh in with their best practices for proper floor planning and some specific strategies to help you avoid that dreaded call from the fabricator at 5:30 on a Friday night. We start with an article by Cory Grunwald and Jeff Reinhold, who share sev- eral ideas for optimizing your floor planning pro- cess. Tamara Jovanovic explains how to craft your floor planning strategies to meet the challenges of your company's product requirements. Barry Olney discusses how to set up proper floor planning for the best signal integrity outcome. John Watson points out some lessons that PCB designers can learn from mistakes made by interior designers. Ste- phen V. Chavez compares floor planning to design- ing an entire city from scratch, and Kelly Dack dis- cusses why floor planning is much like moving furni- ture. We also have columns by Matt Stevenson and Happy Holden, and articles by Gerry Partida, Anaya Vardya, and Shawn DuBravac. It's almost trade show season, and we'll be cov- ering PCB West and SMTA International in the upcoming months. See you next time. DESIGN007 Andy Shaughnessy is managing editor of Design007 Magazine. He has been covering PCB design for 23 years. To read past columns, click here.