CircuiTree - February 2009 - (Page 21)

in the design of the product. Mechanical, RF, analog, digital, software, and other specialists need to collaborate efﬁciently to develop the most competitive product. Part of globalization is outsourcing manufacturing (EMS) and even design and manufacturing (ODM). It is rare, especially in the consumer industry, for the manufacturing plant to be at the same location or even the same company as the OEM. The second major factor that we continue to experience is competition coming from emerged and emerging countries. For years we have identiﬁed countries like China with low-cost, low-end consumer products. This has changed and now they are developing the most sophisticated products and delivering them at very competitive prices. And on the horizon are countries like India, Vietnam, and former Eastern Bloc countries. The third factor is consolidation. Here we see companies buying other companies and the problems they encounter when merging the cultures, design tools, best practices, and infrastructures. This further adds to the complexity of getting a competitive product out the door. More Than PCB Design Tools and Manufacturing When we think about getting a product out the door, we tend to focus our attention on the PCB design tools and getting the manufacturing lined up. Are we using the most productive PCB design tools and can they handle the most advanced technologies? Is our manufacturing the most efﬁcient and able to produce at the lowest costs and highest volumes? But there is more to developing and delivering a competitive product, at the lowest cost, quickly, than PCB design and manufacturing. The product development process may include an ASIC, a package, or an FPGA. There is a complete supply chain that must operate efﬁciently to feed manufacturing. There is a mechanical enclosure for the product and software to run the product. So there is opportunity to improve the efﬁciency of the entire development process by providing automated collaboration capabilities between all of the disciplines involved with delivery of the product. Let’s look at some possibilities. Technology Trends Today, many advanced PCB technologies are available to the electronics company. These include HDI/microvia fabrication, embedded passives and actives, ﬂex and rigid-ﬂex, and even systems-in-package. The use of many of these technologies is driven by the increase in speed and density of IC and FPGA offerings as well as the desire to ﬁt more in smaller enclosures. Using advanced technologies is both a curse and a blessing. It adds levels of complexity to the design and manufacturing process but at the same time can decrease the complexity of the process. How could this ever work? An example is the use of HDI/microvia fabrication. Yes, using this technology requires additional expertise and more sophisticated design tools while implementing the PCB. It also requires additional manufacturing steps to add the HDI layers. But it can also signiﬁcantly reduce the effort required to route the board as well as reduce the overall layer count (and very likely the cost) of the manufactured board. This case comes into play strongly if the product requires the use of one or more high pin count, small-pitch BGAs. Breaking out the routing from these devices using standard through-hole fabrication can add many layers to the board and effort to the CAD designer. Costs go up and productivity goes down. But using two to three layers of HDI with microvias can greatly simplify the process and reduce the overall layer count and cost of the PCB. Figure 2 shows an example taken from a recently published book by Charles Pfeil regarding proper use of HDI technology with high density BGAs. (This book can be found at www.mentor.com/go/bga.) Product Differentiation Cost Reduction Faster Time to Market Design/Supply Chain Collaboration As the PCB is being designed, parts are being selected and changed. Early design cycle parts selection should be communicated to procurement via digital work-in-progress bill of materials (BoMs) so that procurement can determine if these parts are available in desired volumes, at target costs. Parts placement is communicated to manufacturing to ensure that automated pick and place can be used avoiding manual assembly and additional costs. But as the design process enters its ﬁnal stages, ECOs often change single parts and communicating complete new BoMs or placements is not efﬁcient. What need to be digitally communicated are just the incremental change proposals from design to the rest of the supply chain. This capability provides a method of negotiation where a change can be proposed, rejected, counter-proposed, and accepted. This represents true collaboration (Figure 3) and streamlines the ﬁnal stages of the development process. Figure 1 Most Electronics Companies Have a Set of Common Business Drivers Figure 2 Proper Use of HDI and Microvias Can Reduce Design Time, PCB Layers, and Product Costs circuitree.com • February 2009 21 http://www.mentor.com/go/bga http://www.circuitree.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CircuiTree - February 2009

CircuiTree - February 2009 Contents Lead Wire The Wire Tech Talk Flexible Thinking Are Better PCB Design Tools and Manufacturing Enough to Stay Competitive? The Strategist Fein-Lines The Big Deal Over Fine Pitch Assembly Asian Section View From the Middle Market Outlook Technical Product Spotlights Classified Ads Upcoming Events Ad Index

CircuiTree - February 2009

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