Design for Manufacturability (DFM) optimizes designs for the manufacturing process, making it an essential component of concurrent engineering. By considering factors such as manufacturability and assembly requirements early in the design phase, DFM streamlines production, bridges CAD-CAM communication, and enhances product reliability. Here, we cover general technical requirements for DFM in PCB manufacturing.
In PCB design, one common question arises: if an extra layer is not required for routing, why use it? Reducing the number of layers theoretically makes the board thinner and lowers costs. However, in some cases, adding an additional layer can actually reduce costs.
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) can damage sensitive components such as MOSFETs, CMOS gates, and PN junctions, leading to issues like gate damage, short circuits, and even melted wiring. This guide offers practical strategies to design PCBs that effectively prevent ESD from harming the circuit.
Multilayer PCB design follows principles similar to double-layer design, with added structural complexity and a focus on stable signal integrity and efficient routing. With experience in double-layer PCBs, moving to multilayer designs can be manageable.
Mastering these PCB design rules—like efficient grounding, proper trace sizing, and capacitor placement—significantly improves design quality and efficiency. By following these guidelines, you can reduce rework, save costs, and achieve more reliable, higher-quality PCB designs
HDI PCBs have a higher density per unit circuit than traditional PCBs. They use a combination of buried and blind vias and microvias (0.006 inches in diameter or less). A high-density board is a PCB that has one or more of the following features:
With HDI boards, you can affix more components on both sides of the bare PCB, allowing you to get more functionality in a smaller space and expand the overall functionality of your device. HDI technology enables you to add functionality while reducing the size and weight of your product.
With the development of electronic information technology, multi-layer PCBs are used in more and more fields. Traditionally, we define PCBs with more than four layers as “multi-layer PCBs” and PCBs with more than ten layers as “high-layer PCBs”. Whether or not a PCB manufacturer can produce high-layer PCBs is an important indicator of its strength. A PCB manufacturer that can produce high-layer PCBs with more than twenty layers is considered to be a PCB company with outstanding technical strength.