PCB Tech - Restrict the ability of PCBs to cut and paste

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

Limitations given to PCB cutting and pasting capabilities

The latest form of intellectual property (IP) entering the market is simple PCB design. In order to be able to transfer known good designs to new projects, design automation vendors have set up software to allow engineers to cut and paste the PCB layout.

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

Concerned about the rapid increase in the cost of designing highly integrated silicon, the shortage of layout engineers has encouraged major suppliers in the PCB field to transform their high-end tools in an attempt to make up for some of the shortcomings.

Zuken Marketing Director Mark Ashton said: "Lack of talent. In the United States, they are now paying more for layout staff than EEs."

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

Design automation vendors believe that staff shortages are driving customers to seek higher levels of automation. Therefore, the concept of constraint management in the mid-1990s (where rules are set on each PCB trace to ensure correct routing) has returned.

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

Cadence Design Systems provides new support for constraint management from schematic capture to layout to version 14.0 of its Allegro software. Zuken Group plans to roll out the constraint management system to HotStage 4 later this year.

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

The problem they expect to solve comes from the large number of critical traces that still exist on the PCB. Ashton said: "[System on Chip] is not developing as fast as people expected. People are using multiple off-the-shelf chips because the cost of developing SoC is very low.

"You must have a lot of confidence in your market forecasts to choose an SoC design instead of collecting cheaper off-the-shelf parts.

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

"But there is still this trend to be smaller and faster. In some cases, the circuit board is smaller than all components expected, so they enter the PCB itself."

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

Gary Hinde, Cadence PCB Group European Marketing Manager, said: "PCB layout can be IP. It becomes a thing that differentiates suppliers."

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

By combining constraints with known good layouts, Hinde stated that it is possible to transfer designs to new products and still expect them to be routed with the help of signal integrity analysis, effectively achieving this goal through automated tools.

This article explains what are the limiting factors that restrict the cutting and pasting capabilities of PCBs

The push for signal integrity analysis has spread to low-end products. For the newly released Cadstar, Zuken has already promoted part of its EMC technology acquired through Incases to the routing engine. The EMC inspection software in Cadstar 4.5 first identifies critical networks and then analyzes whether these networks will cause problems after routing.