-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueLevel Up Your Design Skills
This month, our contributors discuss the PCB design classes available at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. As they explain, these courses cover everything from the basics of design through avoiding over-constraining high-speed boards, and so much more!
Opportunities and Challenges
In this issue, our expert contributors discuss the many opportunities and challenges in the PCB design community, and what can be done to grow the numbers of PCB designers—and design instructors.
Embedded Design Techniques
Our expert contributors provide the knowledge this month that designers need to be aware of to make intelligent, educated decisions about embedded design. Many design and manufacturing hurdles can trip up designers who are new to this technology.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Field Trip: CID Class Sees How Flex is Made at Streamline Circuits
June 6, 2018 | Kelly Dack, CID+, EPTACEstimated reading time: 3 minutes
I’ve been designing PCBs and flexible circuits for decades now. I’ve heard a lot of advice over the years, but what really sticks in my mind are the wise words of a mechanical engineer I worked with back in the ’80s. He was an older guy named Clarence. One day, Clarence and I were doing a design review, and he gave me some sage advice: “Kelly, never design something that can’t be built.”
I got a chuckle out of his statement. Well, duh! Of course, it must be manufacturable. Every designer knows that, right?
But as the years went by, I engaged with more designers, design teams and manufacturing stakeholders. (In my view, the stakeholders are anyone with “skin in the game.” We don’t want to let down any of our fellow stakeholders.) I soon realized that Clarence’s words were a prophetic warning for my future career path as a PCB designer. While I was thinking “duh,” I had only begun to start reaching out to suppliers and manufacturers in the PCB industry.
As I spoke with these manufacturing stakeholders about what they need from a designer to make successful circuit boards, I heard woeful tales of PCB designs that were unmanufacturable. Some designs had lines that would etch away, or via pads that would be obliterated if over-drilled to allow for plating. Multilayer PCB stack-ups would often need to be a quarter-inch thick to achieve the specified impedance requirements. It was as if these PCB designers had never set foot inside a fabrication facility before. And that turns out to be the case more often than you might think; many designers have never visited a board shop.
After many years, I’m still designing rigid PCBs and “flexitos,” and I’m still reaching out to PCB manufacturing suppliers and making queries to find out what designers can do to help our manufacturing counterparts be successful. And you know what? I’m am hearing Clarence’s words echoing from an entire industry of fabricators: “Never design something that can’t be built.”
If you are a PCB designer, are you surprised? Maybe you are responding “Duh,” as I did 30 years ago. In the spirit of Clarence, I’m here to warn you that “duh” is an inadequate response. Unmanufacturable designs are still prevalent in the PCB industry, on a worldwide scale.
To help alleviate this issue, I’m trying to convince designers that they need to visit a board shop every now and then. I recently had the opportunity to take a group of designers on a tour of Streamline Circuits, a rigid and flex fabricator in Santa, Clara, California.
As a design instructor for EPTAC, I was teaching an IPC Certified Interconnect Designer (CID) class in Santa Clara. This four-day class drew a group of five PCB designers, all hoping to achieve their CID certification by the end of the week. During the segment of the course materials that covers the importance of reaching out to other PCB process stakeholders, I always ask the class if anyone has visited a PCB fabrication supplier to see the process up close. I am constantly amazed that a very small percentage of designers have ever done so.
During this class, I had learned that the training facility that EPTAC uses in Santa Clara is a block away from Streamline Circuits. Streamline does a lot of military and aerospace work, as well as communications and industrial electronics. The company manufactures quite a bit of multilayer flex and rigid-flex circuits, in addition to rigid boards. This would make a great field trip for my CID class!
To read this entire article, which appeared in the April 2018 issue of Flex007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
04/19/2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineFor my must-read picks of the week, I’m highlighting Parker Capers, a young professional seeking employment, solid counsel from Dan Beaulieu on what your post-show plan should look like, more information and insight on “chiplets” and the need for secure data transfer standards from columnist Preeya Kuray, as well as Matt Stevenson’s design for reality wisdom. It’s a reminder to download one of our newest books (there are several) you don't want to miss if you are an assembler.
Absolute EMS Champions Collaboration Between Humans and Robots in Modern Manufacturing
04/19/2024 | Absolute EMS, Inc.Absolute EMS, Inc., an award-winning EMS provider of turnkey contract manufacturing services, offers a perfect factory environment that seamlessly blends robotic automation with human expertise.
ZESTRON Welcomes Whitlock Associates as New Addition to their Existing Rep Team in Florida
04/19/2024 | ZESTRONZESTRON, the leading global provider of high-precision cleaning products, services, and training solutions in the electronics manufacturing and semiconductor industries, is thrilled to announce the addition of Whitlock Associates to its esteemed network of sales representatives.
SEMI Applauds U.S. Chips Act Award for Samsung Electronics Facilities to Strengthen Domestic Semiconductor Supply Chain
04/17/2024 | SEMISEMI, the industry association serving the global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain, applauded the United States Department of Commerce’s announcement of a Preliminary Memorandum of Terms for an award under the CHIPS and Science Act to support the expansion of Samsung Electronics’ presence in Texas and the company’s development and production of leading-edge chips.
Ark Electronics Expands Global Manufacturing Factory Network in North America and Europe
04/17/2024 | PRNewswireElectronic Manufacturing Company Ark Electronics recently announced the expansion of its Global Factory Network with the addition of Electronics Manufacturing Service (EMS) capabilities in Mexico and Europe.