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14 The PCB Design Magazine • February 2016 within 4% (e.g., 83% designed for SI, and 79% simulated for it). So teams are biting the bullet to do more upfront planning, as well as valida- tion during the design. In return, the number that hit the magical "first-time-right" goal in- creased, reducing prototype iterations, and sig- nificantly reducing the overall design time. So simulation has not only become a best practice, but commonplace in today's designs. Shaughnessy: So designers and engineers will be able to run simulations without an expert in the field? Wiens: Absolutely. While we first think of signal integrity, power integrity is very important as I mentioned earlier. We also have tools for ther- mal simulation and airflow simulation. The lat- ter has really made an impact on the mechani- cal design and we'll be seeing more and more airflow simulation use in the future too. Another is related to "Lean NPI." Rather than have the NPI engineer or—worse yet—the fabrication house alter the PCB design to meet their standards, the product can incorporate the required fabricator constraints that become rules that are validated during the design. Shaughnessy: What do you see happening in other areas of PCB design and manufacturing? Wiens: Another emerging trend is to treat a design as a system, not a collection of boards, packages, connectors, and even cabinets. This allows a design to more easily be modified, if and when changes are re- quired. To be clear, engineering teams have always designed systems—boards have always gone into enclosures, daugh- ter cards have always plugged onto mother boards, and ICs have always gone into packages which have gone into boards. What's different is the drive to break down the "black boxes" of each discipline which define and restrict how each compo - nent in the system interface with each other. This enables teams to collabo- rate more efficiently and optimize the entire system, rather than just their specific design component. The best example is the developing collabo- ration among chip, package and board design- ers and vendors. By all three of these disciplines working together, they are able to optimize in- terconnect from the IC, through the package, onto the board, maximizing performance while minimizing form factor and cost. Shaughnessy: Do you have anything else to add, David? Wiens: I'd just like to conclude by saying that I think we're in for some really exciting times in the next few years. Simulation has really reached the point where it is a best practice with many companies. Increased density and complex circuits have spawned some really in- credible tools that will only get better. And the 3D trends in IC and IC packaging present some real challenges to PCB design as well as manu- facturing. Shaughnessy: Thanks, David. Wiens: Thank you, Andy. PCBDESIGN technology outlook with Mentor graphics