Why More and More Complex Designs Need the Best PCB Design Software

Why More and More Complex Designs Need the Best PCB Design Software

The PCB industry is also developing and becoming more complex. The era of large, simple panels is gone forever. Now, everything must be small, fashionable and sometimes flexible. These industry trends force designers not only to be boys of layout or schematic, but also to go all out. This is why it is important for you to have the best software at your fingertips to help you accomplish things such as hard and flexible design, ECAD/MCAD collaboration, stakeholder collaboration, and power supply network analysis (PDNA).

Rigid flexible PCB design

When I was a child, I became more flexible, but now I can hardly touch my toes. With the maturity of the industry, PCB boards are becoming more and more flexible, and PCB seems to be developing in the opposite direction.

Although many different product types are driving flexible design, the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearables are the culprits. These types of devices have strange dimensions and are usually small in space. It has been proved that flexible plates or rigid flexible plates are the most suitable.

However, designing flexible plates is easier said than done. There are many factors to consider, including: materials, wiring, flexibility versus rigid flexibility, and installation. If you want to be a successful board of directors, you will need software that can help you in all these areas. Good design software will provide detailed documents about materials and design technology. It will also have features to help you track the layer stack and check the 3D gaps on the board. Everyone needs tools to help them finish their work. These will make rigid flexible design as easy as jumping house.

Sometimes children have problems working together. Little Jimmy wanted to build a Lego castle, but Sandra thought the spaceship would be better. Both eventually cried, and the performance date was destroyed. Engineers may also have problems with collaboration. We like to stick to our own field while leaving the rest to others. However, as complexity increases, collaboration should also increase so that work can be done more quickly and easily.

It is easy to forget the enclosure in which your circuit board must be installed. This may result in a large number of round-trip engineering change requests. Now there is available software that can import the 3D shell model of the mechanical engineer, render the 3D model of PCB and check the gap for you. This really simplifies the design process and reduces where the top of the head should protrude.

The industry is striving to move forward to 3D printing board and additive manufacturing. As these become more common, you will need to work more closely with mechanical engineers to ensure that 3D design really works. It is better to continue and start cooperation immediately.

Stakeholder cooperation

Just as mechanical and electrical engineers like to stick to their own ideas, we often like to distance ourselves from external stakeholders. I am a design engineer, so there is no need to worry about manufacturers or suppliers.

The problem is that things get easier when you increase their number during the design process. Do you have a circuit board with fake parts? This can be avoided when you have a close relationship with the supplier. However, you do not have to do all the work. When parts are out of stock or obsolete, you do not need to call the supplier and make a new list. This is why you have software that tracks available parts and can recommend replacement when needed.

This is also a good habit for the future. More and more growing companies are vertically integrating their design and manufacturing processes. Think about Tesla developing battery and solar technology. Vertical integration reduces overhead, making it easier for companies to adapt to changing industries and ultimately enable them to produce better PCBs.

When you are still trying to become the next Tesla, you need to communicate effectively with the manufacturer. Keeping them in close contact will help you reduce defects in the manufacturing process, thereby saving time and money. However, how do you communicate with them? They may be in another time zone, and you don't want to call them every time you have a problem. Therefore, it is important to have a good software that can clearly communicate your circuit board specifications and keep the manufacturer informed of your components. This way, they can keep their designs up to date without having to call them every night.

I bet you never thought when you were young that you would need to know how to analyze the power transmission network. As an adult, you have now realized that PDNA is essential to ensure that complex circuit boards work for the first time and will not explode.

PDNA is very important because it can help you avoid voltage drop and overheating. It allows you to see where you need to widen the wires to reduce the voltage drop so that your circuit can work properly under all conditions. The current density analysis will show you potential hotspots. You can then change the surrounding environment to lower the temperature without adding radiators.

The only problem is that PDNA is almost impossible to complete manually. Using separate software is easier, but there are still learning difficulties. You may even need to learn more about signal analysis. The perfect PCB design software will integrate PDNA into the software you have already used.

Growth is difficult, but designing such PCBs is even more difficult. Trust me, you will need all the help you need to deal with rigid flexibility, 3D modeling, HDI and PDNA. Fortunately, there is one solution that can solve all problems. PCB Assembly and PCB processing manufacturers explain why more and more complex designs need the best professional PCB design software.