PCB White Papers
The CAD Library of the Future
The electronics industry is constantly growing and introducing new technology sometimes faster than we can keep up with. This paper reviews one of the single most important, but sometimes overlooked or taken for granted, aspects of the electronics industry—The CAD Library Land Pattern.
Every electronic component requires a solder land pattern for PCB layout. The solder pattern can be placed into two categories:
- Meet all the industry standard requirements for the sole purpose of electronic product creation automation.
- Fail to meet the industry standard requirements and create electronic product creation chaos.
More White Papers
PCB Design Perfection Starts in the CAD Library, Part 1: The 1608 (EIA 0603) Chip Component
Part 1 of this paper describes every aspect that should be considered when creating chip CAD library parts and the impact that each feature of the CAD library has in the PCB process.
The CAD library is the starting point that affects every process from PCB layout through PCB manufacturing and assembly. There are dozens of things to consider when creating a CAD library that are often overlooked or not even considered that will directly affect the quality of the part placement, via fanout, trace routing, post processing, fabrication and assembly processes.
Building and Maintaining CAD Libraries
There are three driving forces that are radically changing CAD library construction. The first is lead free solder. The next is metric units. And lastly is Component Manufacturer Chaos. This term describes component manufacturers who no longer follow JEDEC packaging standards and are leading the way for new component package development. It seems as though the constraints of standard package data have been thrown out the window and new unique electronic device packages are emerging on the market at light speed. These challenges will continue to impact CAD library development and maintenance as we move forward.
Metric Pitch BGA and Micro BGA Routing Solutions
The following paper provides Via Fanout and Trace Routing solutions for various metric pitch Ball Grid Array Packages. Note: the “metric” dimensions are the ruling numbers. To solve the metric pitch BGA dilemma, one should have a basic understanding of the metric feature sizes for:
- BGA Ball Sizes and BGA Land Pattern Pad Construction
- BGA Via Anatomy
- Trace/Space
- Trace and Via Routing Grid
- Differential Pairs
- HDI Hole Size/Annular Ring
The Universal PCB Design Grid System
This paper reviews one of the single most important, but sometimes overlooked or taken for granted, aspects of the electronics industry – The PCB Design Grid System. Mixing PCB Design Layout units will compromise perfection every time. PCB Design perfection starts with building CAD library parts and quickly moves to part placement, via fanout and trace routing challenges. Outputting data for machine production can be extremely complex or very simple based on the PCB Design Layout units that were used throughout the PCB design process.