The PCB Design Process

AED 703

J. Ebden
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 The PCB Design Process
• Before the design
• Preparing the design
• Draw the board
• Import the net
• Place the parts
• Route the traces
• Final work

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 Before the Design
• You will need (as a minimum):

– The required dimensions of the board

– A list of parts to be used on the board
– The data sheets for each part
– A schematic diagram of the board

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 Before the Design
Board Dimensions
• Where does the board go?
– Into a case
– Slides into a rack

• What are the external dimensions for the

board?

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 Before the Design
Board Dimensions

• Board requires connections to:

– Obtain power
– Exchange information
– Display results
• Where do the connectors go?
• What size connectors are to be used?
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 Before the Design
Board Dimensions

• How is the board held in place?

– Guide rails
– Mounting bracket(s)
– Bolts

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 Before the Design
Board Dimensions
• Are there any height restrictions?

• Some components have higher profiles

– Transformers
– Large capacitors
– Batteries

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 Before the Design
Board Dimensions
– What thickness of copper should be used?

• The more current to be carried, the thicker the

copper has to be.
• Copper laminate thickness is usually given in
ounces per square foot
• For general use boards, a common thickness is 1
oz copper (1.4 mil, 0.0014in, 0.035mm, 35)
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 Before the Design
Parts List
• Known also as the BOM (bill of materials)
• Each part is must be identified by a unique
reference designator and a part description
– e.g. R5 “1 k, ¼ watt metal film resistor, 5%”

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 Before the Design

Data Sheets for each Part

• The most important information is the physical
dimensions of the part.
– if you do not have a data sheet obtain part and
measure it yourself.
– not as accurate as using part manufacturer’s
information, but better than guessing

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 Before the Design
Schematic Diagram of the Board

• Shows the connection of the parts on the

board
• Each part on schematic has a reference
designator that matches that on the BOM
• Most ECAD programs give an automatic
generation of the BOM
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 Preparing the Design

• Two steps involved here are:

– Generation of the netlist

– Creating the Parts Database

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 Preparing the Design
Generating the Netlist
• The netlist is a file that has the device names of
the parts used on the board.

• It also shows the “nets” - interconnections

between the pins of the parts.

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 Preparing the Design
Generating the Netlist
• Although can be typed by hand if schematic was
manually drawn best to let system generate it from
the schematic.
• The netlist file is critical to PCB function. Should
be double checked as the smallest mistake can
cause board to be scrapped.

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 Preparing the Design
Creating the Parts DataBase
• Most ECAD systems define the parts to be placed
on the board as a special type of file called the
PDB file.
• Allows better use of computer memory and disk
resources by allowing multiple instances.

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 Preparing the Design
Creating the Parts DataBase
• PDB is built in a hierarchy:

• Devices  Packages  Pads

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 Preparing the Design
Creating the Parts DataBase
• Pads
• Entities that interface the part pins to the copper
traces of the board
• Pad must be big enough top allow enough
copper around a hole (for thru-hole
components)
• If pad is too large may have trouble soldering
• Many ECAD systems include solder mask
information with theAED703
pad files.
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 Preparing the Design
Creating the Parts DataBase
• Packages
• Entities that represent the part. Consist of lines and
text.
• Lines represent the maximum dimensions of the
part on the assembly drawing and the layout
• Lines are also drawn on a different layer to
represent the part outline on the silkscreen legend.
• Text shows the designator for the part when
placed on the board.
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 Preparing the Design
Creating the Parts DataBase
• Devices
• Entities that link the value or part number of a part with
the ECAD package.
• Thus can design one “DIP14” package and a number
of device files to link “74S00” and other part numbers
to it in the netlist.
• On many systems these are text files to allow for
selective swapping of pins and mapping of pin numbers
to a different pin when inserted.
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 Draw the Board
• First draw outline of the board
• Need a datum
• Place tool holes at three corners
– Two are on same vertical axis and third on
same horizontal axis as the first
– Hole at intersection of horizontal and vertical
axis is the datum or (0,0) coordinate of the PCB

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 Draw the Board
• May need to set-up placement keep-out areas:
– if board fits into a card rack need to allow for amount
of board that sits in the slides
– a keep- out of 0.050” around board edge to allow for
manufacturing tolerances
• May need special keep-out areas:
– to impose height limitations
– to limit what parts and signals may be routed within
them
– to allow for testing and assembly
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 Import the Netlist
• The netlist is then read in and associated
with any pre-existing fixed parts on the
board
• Any errors made will usually be apparent
here – automatic error detection is one of
the big advantages of using ECAD systems

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 Place the Parts
• Placement factors

– Electrical function
– Physical size
– Temperature factors
– Routability

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 Place the Parts
• Most ECAD programs have autoplacement
options. Often only good for boards with
just a few parts
• Even for manual placement programs have
aids
– Ratsnest display shows all connections.

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 Placement Guidelines
• Can save space by using both sides of the
board
– in the old days parts went on one side called the
component side. With the advent of surface
mount this is now the “primary” side, as
components can be placed on both sides
• Surface mount devices are smaller than
conventional ones

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 Placement Guidelines
• Use a standard grid. A common size is
0.025”
– easier to align components
• Place parts in only one or two orientations,
vertical and horizontal
– non-orthogonal angles are harder to assemble

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 Placement Guidelines
• Place polarized parts in the same orientation
to keep assembly and repair errors to a
minimum
– all diode cathodes to be up or to the right
• Place IC packages in an even matrix and
make sure they are functionally grouped.
– power and ground connections will be easier

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 Placement Guidelines
• Arrange parts so:
– they are evenly spaced
– do not overlap
– their pads are a sufficient distance apart to
allow traces to pass between them
• pads should have minimum 0.020” gap in a general
purpose board

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 Placement Guidelines
• Axial parts such as resistors and capacitors
should be placed so:
– there is an equal amount of lead wire on either
side of the body
– the two pads are at a similar distance as other
axial parts
• good general value is 0.500” for smaller parts

• Usually should not allow a lead to bend

more than twice the lead diameter from the
body of the part
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 Placement Guidelines
• Allow sufficient diameter around mounting
holes for hardware to be inserted and
tightened without affecting neighbouring
parts.
• Allow sufficient distance between parts so
that their leads will not touch when bent
over to secure them before soldering.

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 Placement Guidelines

• Edge connector device placed to reduce

routing length
• Analog circuit placed near output connector
to reduce digital noise

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 Placement Guidelines

• Device driving analog circuit placed adjacent

to analog circuit
• Other devices placed according to circuit flow

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 Routing the Board
• Routing is the connecting of the parts that
have been placed on the board
• Can be done manually or automatically
– usually better to do automatically

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 Routing the Board
• Even if adopt automatic routing it is good
practice to lay out power and ground traces.
– use a “rail” structure where possible with
parallel ground and power traces between rows
of ICs
– use a wide trace for these runs
• 0.05” for power and 0.100” for ground
• can usually use 0.025” traces for connecting each
part to to the rail but do calculations first.

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 Routing the Board
• Good routing strategy normally has traces
on side of the board vertical, with the other
horizontal.
• It is cheaper to have signal traces 0.013” on
a 0.025” centers. Many shops can do 0.004”
on 0.008” centers (or even finer), but this is
often overkill.

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 Routing the Board
• Good routing strategy normally means trace
should be as short and direct as possible.
• Could be possible to have all signal traces
starting and ending on a component pad.
– trace would then snake around so much that
circuit function is degraded.
– avoid this problem by using pads without
component leads. These are called feed-thrus or
vias.

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 Routing the Board
• Vias allow better routing of the board as
vertical/horizontal strategy is maintained as
well as minimizing signal path.
• Although professional designers take pride
in minimizing number of vias, they lead to
better designs.

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 Routing the Board
• Critical signals are best done by hand. This
allows the signal trace to have less bends
and vias than the autorouter would use.
• Flag the trace before turning on the
autorouter so that it is not moved.

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 Routing the Board
• On a complex board some signals will not
be routed and must be finished manually.
• This is where the skill of the designer
comes in.
• If 95% of the board is finished by the
autorouter, it can be quite time consuming
and tricky to finish the last 5% manually.

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 Final Work
• After placement and routing is complete
will need to:
– adjust the silkscreen legend
– prepare a fabrication drawing
– prepare an assembly drawing

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 Final Work
Adjust the silkscreen legend
• Part outlines need to be trimmed to keep
lines off pads and vias
– many ECAD programs do this automatically
• Reference designators need to be moved for
same reason and also so they can be seen
when part is installed
• May need other details to be shown

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 Final Work
Prepare a fabrication drawing
• Dimensions of board are to be shown in
reference to the datum tool hole
• Different symbol should be shown for each
hole size.
• Table to be given showing quantity of each
hole size

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 Final Work
Prepare an assembly drawing
• Used as an aid for building and repairing the
board
• Outlines of parts and reference designators to
be shown
• Any special assembly instructions to be
shown
• For simple boards some companies just use a
copy of the silkscreen legend as their
assembly drawing
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 Post processing

• Prepares data that is used by the

manufacturer to generate the finished board

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 Post processing

• First step is to print the fabrication and

assembly drawings
• Should check these before sending out.
Correction of mistakes once board has been
made are very expensive

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 Post processing
• Second step is to generate the NC drill file of
hole positions.
• Manufacturer uses this data to set-up for
drilling the boards
• Can set up drills by optically inputting data
from assembly drawing.
– this is more expensive and error prone.
– better to generate the drill file

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 Post processing
• Third step is to generate the art work for the
board
• Each layer of the board must have a master
artwork with opaque features on a clear
background
• May be possible to do printing yourself but
better to send to a reprographic company
• Many manufacturers accept photoplot files
(gerber files)
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