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32 The PCB Design Magazine • October 2015 Scott McCurdy Director of sales and marketing, Freedom CAD Services "Invest in script automa- tion. Most CAD systems have a macro script language that allows you to automate func- tions and greatly increase your productivity, such as dalTools for Allegro." Jens Hansen PCB designer, Aalborg, Denmark "Learn the limitations of the PCB fabrica- tion process and set up your PCB CAD system accordingly." Felipe Lopez Rendon Packaging design engineer with Intel, Guadalajara, Mexico "Keep the DRC on most of the time." Jean Bratton Senior PCB designer, Freedom CAD Services "For anything you need to type/do more than a couple of times, set up a function key, script, or whatever so that it's just a button push." Anton Erasmus Electronic engineer, M-TEK (Pty) Ltd., South Africa "Check netlists for missing nets, and auto- route any PCB with ridiculously small tracks, clearances, and via sizes. Also, autoroute with however number of layers one requires to 100% route the PCB. Then enable only the top layer, and zoom in. Check every surface mount pad to see if it is connected by a track. If no track is connected to an SMT pad, then verify on the schematic whether it should be unconnected. Repeat for the bottom layer. On a PCB that uses mostly SMT components, this is a very quick way to find all sorts of errors in schematics, which cause incorrect routing of signals." Kelly Dack PCB designer, EMS company, Eastern Washington state "I always try to start the design with the end in sight. This involves proactive collec- tion and consideration of all design constraints before the CAD layout tool is ever launched. Identify all of the 'design fors' that may apply: design for test (DFT); design for cost (DFC); design for manu- facturability (DFM), and design for all (DFx). Meeting with each respective stakeholder in the design and manufacturing process is key to mak- ing sure that expectations can be sufficiently met. Constraints must be weighed for compro- mise. When things begin to get tight during the layout phase, I want to be in the position of hav- ing enough information to intelligently justify robbing Peter to pay Paul. More communication up front prevents slowdowns later! We hope these tips are useful. What are your favorite time-saving design tips? Let us know! Click here. PCBDESIGN feature THE READERS SPEAK: TIPS ON ACCELERATING YOuR DESIGN CYCLE Superconductivity, which is almost incompat- ible with magnetic fields, under certain condi- tions is able to promote magnetization. russian scientist natalya Pugach from the Skobeltsyn institute of nuclear Physics at the lomonosov Moscow State university discovered this effect with her British colleagues, whose theory group is headed by Professor Matthias eschrig. They suggest that techniques based on this effect are able to move us closer to future supercomputers: spintronic devices. The research team studied the interactions between superconductivity and magnetization. The results of this new research show, that super- conductors may be useful in the process of spin transportation, and ferromagnetics may be used to control spins. it is quite possible that the find- ing will allow development of conceptually new spintronic elements. Superconductivity Trained to Promote Magnetization