Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design ranging from 2-layer simple test boards used for production and programming to complex 10-layer designs with blind and buried vias, plated edges, BGAs, and controlled impedance microstrips and striplines with copper spacing down to 0.004″. Years of experience with multiple PCB fabrication and PCB population companies and techniques, both domestic and foreign. Dozens of PCB designs with more than 100 units produced. Deep understanding of the present state of PCB technology and the trade-offs associated with size, weight, performance, cost, and the speed of manufacture.
- Summary
- More than 10 complex designs with over 1,000 units each produced
- One complex design with more than 5,000 units produced
- More than 100 designs overall
- Production planning of batches of 100+ units on more than 50 different occasions, including parts purchasing and vendor qualification
- Designs controlled under and inspected to IPC Class 2 and IPC Class 3 for both PCB fabrication, automated board population, and hand rework processes
- Extensive library of known-good schematic parts and footprints from previous designs
- SolidWorks CircuitWorks package for accurate 3-D board modelling, maximizing use of available volume
- SolidWorks COSMOS for simulating heat transfer and board stresses
- Complex PCB Designs
- 2- to 10-layer
- Blind and buried vias
- Plated edges
- Plated and non-plated through holes and board cutouts
- Solder masks, silkscreens, various plating techniques
- Varying Rogers and FR-4 board materials
- Controlled impedance, microstrips, striplines, and waveguides
- Trace antennas, capacitors, inductors, filters, splitters, and couplers
- Flex, rigid, and mixed flexed/rigid designs
- Connectors ranging from ultra miniature (0.4 mm pitch) to large MIL standard including RF, high-speed, and high current connections.
- Down to 4 mil trace/spacing
- 0.020″ to 0.125″ finished board thickness
- 0.5 oz copper to 2 oz copper finish
- Designs with Ball Grid Array (BGA) pitch down to 0.5 mm
- High-speed routing with and without termination
- Power planes, ground planes, split/mixed planes, use of thermals
- Densely populated boards with multiple radios (both transmitters and receivers) that require careful isolation
- Power PCBs with large electrical current requirements where trace width must be carefully considered to ensure appropriate temperature rise
- Active cooling using fans and passive cooling through the PCB
- Conformal coating processes to protect boards against moisture, dust, and chemical exposures
- Use of thermal grease, screws, washers, and other fasteners
- Simple PCB Design
- Experience with simple 2-layer boards without solder mask or silkscreen
- Typically used during development as a “breakout” board or during production for mass testing or microcontroller/FPGA programming
- PCB Fabrication
- Experience with more than ten different PCB fabrication companies
- Experience handling problems associated with transferring a design between different fabrication companies
- Extensive experience with everything from quick-turn rapid prototyping builds to long lead, mass production fabrication and everything in between
- Encountered virtually every PCB fabrication issue and understand how to discover problems early or prevent them altogether
- PCB Population – Manual Techniques (Hand Population)
- Typically reserved for small development and proof-of-concept builds
- Populated dozens of PCBs by hand including BGAs and component sizes down to 0402 and 0201 case sizes
- Experience with rework microscopes, soldering irons, hot air, solder paste, flux (no-clean and not no-clean), flux off, compressed air cleaners, and more
- PCB Population – Automated Techniques (Pick and Place Machines)
- PCB array designs to facilitate mass production, ranging from 1 to 16 boards per panel (1-up to 16-up), specifying tab width and placement and router bit use, and maximizing use of panel size to minimize cost
- Paste mask stencil design – Gerber generation and fabrication of stencils for applying solder paste as part of automated assembly. Understanding the trade-offs associated with varying stencil thickness, oversizing pads, and paste mask keep out areas
- Specifying and modifying temperature profiles for reflow oven based upon board plane sizes, use of thermals, and board-level component materials and temperature tolerances
- Post-assembly inspection techniques including use of machine vision for PCB inspection
- Bed-of-nails designs for post-assembly quick functional checks
