Effects of Printed Circuit Board Printed circuit board complexity has been a
main challenge of the majority of electronics companies as they try to get the
most competitive product to market quicker and cheaper Rigid flex PCB. There are several
factors that are contributing to complexity of cheap printed circuit board
manufacturing.
1. In the last ten years, the number of leads per square
inch has tripled. However the board area has remained the same.
2. In the
last fifteen years, there has been an increase in the use of few, high pin-count
parts used with passive components. This has changed the average number of
components to quadruple while leads-per-part average has decreased 4-5 times flex PCB.
3. The number of
pin-to-pin connections has doubled and the number of pins in a design has
tripled.
While complexity has been a major challenge, the other
challenges to advanced printed circuit boards technologies are because of the
increases in IC speeds and densities.
1. Strict design rules must match
the proportion of high-speed interconnects.
2. Thermal management
challenges: As speeds and densities of IC increases the heat they dissipate also
increases. The problem is compounded when ICs are put into smaller
forms.
3. The change to ICs running at multiple supply voltages. Gone are
the days were ICs could be run on a single +5V.
4. Printed circuit board
designers can't keep up with manufacturability. Manufacturing rule sets have
become so extensive it's beyond the comprehension of the average
designer.
What to do?
Tools need to keep up with the advanced
technologies of printed circuit boards and ICs in order to meet productivity and
time constraints. These are the capabilities needed in today's tools.
1.
Get more pins at smaller spacing through a 2 step process. You'll want to
automate the process of connecting the surface of BGA pads to the inner layers
of the PCB, as well as connecting the inner-layer to rest of the components on
the PCB. If this process is done manually it could take the designer
days.
2. Pre-analyze the high speed net classes and create constraints
for those interconnects. The first reason for this step is necessary because of
the increases in IC density and performance that affect PCB design. Boards with
many constrained interconnects provides the productivity and accuracy to create
the right board on the first try. The second reason for this step is to provide
adequate heat dissipation to its extremities. The third reason for this step is
the requirement of supporting multiple, low-tolerance voltages.
The
design team productivity and rate at which products hit the market are
compromised by advances in PCB and IC technology. To overcome these challenges
electronic companies have been wise to use best practices within the industry.
The main way around this is using the PCB design tools that have kept up with
these advances. Using current design tools allows the automation needed to help
designers stay productive, produce the items that keeps the company competitive
in a timely manner that keeps cost low.
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