The location and design of a printed circuit board affect the operation of the entire system, and therefore it is extremely important that it be designed by professionals.

The design of a printed circuit board is the development of a future product in special programs on a computer.

Before making the first prototypes of a printed circuit board in reality, it’s necessary to develop the layout which shows how the finished product should look.

The project file contains information about the shape of the printed circuit board, its dimensions, as well as the placement of all electronic components that will be soldered to the real PCB in the future. Of course, the diagram and all the connections between contacts and pads should also be drawn. For multilayer structures, vias are planned.

Such a file containing all the necessary information in ASCII format is called Gerber and opens in the program for CAM engineers. The program was created specifically for PCB designing and transfers information from the circuit board into a full-fledged display of a three-dimensional or two-dimensional PCB.

This stage is the most important in the production cycle and mistakes made at this stage will affect all subsequent stages. Modern designing software of CAM type allows to check the project for errors before starting production. In the new versions of the software, you can view the model in 3D format, which brings viewing as close as possible to a real printed circuit board and allows to see the interlayer spaces. This greatly simplifies the task for developers and designers.

What is the PCB design?

Creating the PCB design

You can create a circuit yourself using special programs.

And then, according to your scheme-document, a PCB developer, for example, Saifon Technologies, will transfer the Gerber file into a CAM program and work it out for further real production.

Saifon Technologies produces and designs printed circuit boards of any type: single-layer, double-layer, multi-layer and can manufacture the most complex ultra-high-speed microwave boards.

The company has the latest equipment and specialized programs for the design and implementation of the final product. A lot of up-to-date databases, continuous professional development of employees and the introduction of all new production rules make the company the leader in PCB production in Russia.

Step 1

Preparation

Preparing a library of components and schemas. Preparing a separate package for components of a specific board.

Step 2

Structure design

Depending on the product purpose, its dimensions and type, a frame with outlined holes for future fasteners is created. The production requirements for the components placement should also be considered.

Step 4

Connection
diagram

Step 3

Creating a layout

The responsible stage of design is the choice of the design layout. At this stage, all components of the future board are assembled and arranged on the substrate. They are chosen depending on the requirements and purposes of the project. It is important to arrange everything taking into account all the requirements and characteristics of materials. This is especially important when manufacturing high-speed boards, where the wiring diagram and each component affect the final impedance of the board.

Step 5

Optimization of wiring and silkscreen printing

Step 6

DRC and structure control

It is difficult to complete this stage without the involvement of specialists, since it requires tests and checking whether all components are located correctly and whether there are any errors in the calculations.

Step 7

Contacting the PCB manufacturer

This needs to be done before the PCB design project is completed. After that, the latest edits are made in cooperation with the PCB manufacturer that you plan to order the PCBs from.

The creation of a printed circuit board design consists of seven main stages. Let's look at each in more detail:

Seven stages of design