Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/539281
30 The PCB Design Magazine • July 2015 Ferrari: They have already done the imagining, and now they need to bring it to the physical world. Sometimes they just don't understand the tolerances or the processes, the sequences in building a stack-up, material characteristics and combinations, buried vias and all those little de- tails. I work with them so that they understand how to build something that's manufacturable and cost-effective. Anybody can design some- thing, but when it comes down to getting fabri- cated, it could end up being a million dollar design when it could have been maybe a thousand-dollar design, but they messed it all up. We try to help them out with that, and that's what my job is. Matties: We recently ran a survey of the circuit board de- signers and looked at some of their greatest challenges. it's interesting that you're talking about this particular topic be- cause designers say one of the greatest challenges is lack of information; typically things are thrown over the wall and they say, "Design this; we need a board that does this." the other issue they are really chal- lenged with is space utilization. not enough real estate for the functionality being asked for by the purchaser, be it an oem, ems or whomever. Ferrari: It's interesting you asked that question. A customer came to me who had been to one of my seminars, and he said, "Gary, you said that we could take this many components and we could fit them on a board this big; how do we do that?" So I introduced them to new tech- nologies, such as planar capacitance in this par- ticular case. We went through all the simula- tions, which removed some of the components, and sure enough, we were able to get it shrunk down to the form that they wanted, plus they added even more technology to it. They were a happy customer. Matties: how do we get more people in the po- sition to come to the designers before they just design it? how does this process work? someone designs a circuit board and then they say "build it," or do they come to an expert designer? What is that process? Ferrari: All of the above. Basically what they do is, design it themselves, and then they have to build it. Sometimes it's great and sometimes we have to go back and say, "Listen, this is not manufacturable, the an- nular ring is not right, and it needs to be fixed." Then we go through the explanation of the process. Other times they may not have an inter- nal design group so they'll outsource that to a service bureau. Or they come to me and ask, "Do you know a ser- vice bureau that will help us with this thing?" I then put them in contact with a ser- vice bureau that we work with, on either coast. That's one way to get it done. The other item that would help them is what I'm very much involved with, and that is designer certification. It just amazes me how many designers out there have nev- er had any kind of formal de- sign education. Actually, that kind of education doesn't exist, but we are seeing a big explosion in interest, all of a sudden. Matties: You are referring to iPc certified inter- connect Designer (ciD) Ferrari: Yes, CID and CID+. The reason why we're seeing that is because the companies they work for have now realized that the average age of the designer is climbing like crazy. Most of the designers are in their 50s and 60s. The companies are going to start losing their exper- tise and they having nothing in the food chain coming up. the other item that would help them is what I'm very much involved with, and that is designer certification. It just amazes me how many designers out there have never had any kind of formal design education. actually, that kind of education doesn't exist, but we are seeing a big explosion in interest, all of a sudden. " " feature GARy FERRARI SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON PCB DESIGN AND MORE continues