When it’s time to start a new design, printed circuit boards pass through several stages. Production-grade circuit boards are designed using ECAD software, or a CAD application that includes many utilities that are specialized for circuit board design and layout. ECAD software is built to help designers walk through a specific process for circuit board design, beginning with basic electrical drawings and ending with manufacturing file preparation. Circuit board design follows a basic process:
1.Front-end engineering - In this stage, the major components are selected and some basic circuit diagrams are typically created so that the functionality in the board can be designed.
2.Schematic capture - This is the stage where ECAD software is used to translate simple circuit diagrams into electronic drawings that define electrical connections between components. Schematic symbols are used to denote components in the design.
3.Material selection and PCB stack-up design - In this stage, laminate materials are selected and the stack-up is designed to accommodate the need for plane layers, signal layers, dedicated routing channels, and specific material properties.
4.Component placement - After the board shape is set and components are imported into a new PCB layout, components are arranged in the layout to comply with the design’s mechanical requirements.
5.Routing - Once the component placement is approved, it’s time to route traces between components. Routing tools in ECAD software are used to set Trace geometry may be determined in this stage with the goal of ensuring impedance control (for high-speed signals).
6.Design review and verification - Once routing is completed, it’s always a good idea to inspect and evaluate the design to ensure there are no mistakes or unresolved problems. This can be done with manual inspection or using post-layout simulation tools.
7.Preparing for Manufacturing - Once the design is completed, it’s time to prepare for production by generating standard manufacturing files. These files are used in automated fabrication and assembly equipment.
If you want to easily get through all of these stages in the PCB electronics board design process, you need to use the best design software with an intuitive user interface and a complete set of PCB design features.