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Telling “war stories” about flexible circuit designs is something that can provide endless hours of entertainment when you get a bunch of “geeky” PCB people together. In fact, it seems that the best of these stories have all caused countless hours of frustration while in the midst of them, but once that frustration eases, we seem to be able to find both a little (or a lot of) humor in the situation and clarity on the lesson learned. Today, I am...

In designing PCBs that are used for aircraft delivered to the mil-aero market, there are some similarities to other products within the broader military market sector. Satisfying performance metrics relative to shock, temperature, corrosion, long-term product suppor,t and the ability to adhere to outdated standards and specifications can be challenging in this vertical market space. This article will address these factors and what is necessary...

Although it might seem to be very downstream in terms of overall product development considerations, determining which PCB outer layer surface finish is the correct one is something that needs to be addressed at the forefront of the PCB design process. There are a variety of outer layer surface finishes available with both advantages and disadvantages to nearly each one. Which one is best suited to your particular design is highly dependent on...

In recent years, whenever we have talked about glass weave styles, the conversation has surrounded the effect those styles have on differential skew. But weave styles and their impact on PCB designs actually have their roots in blind vias. Both blind vias and skew can be compensated for through the mechanical spreading of the various glass weave styles. This article will discuss both elements, the ways in which they can be addressed and the...

When it comes to designing products for the Army and Marine branches of the military, a lot of the focus is on ground equipment—armored personnel carriers, tanks, Humvees, rocket launchers and artillery pieces. For the Marines, there is also amphibious equipment. On the smaller product implementation side there are radios for both Navy and Marine applications along with the appurtenant communication satellites required for keeping everything...

I was asked recently by a relatively new engineer what files I send to an assembler to make sure they do not encounter problems, and what would reduce the number of clarification questions they ask about the design. That engineer had been working professionally for several years with a large company, and had never had the responsibility of generating outputs or even seen the outputs from the products he was working on, so his only experience was...

In my previous article, Generating Outputs for Assemblers, we generated a fantastic assembly drawing for an assembler or contract manufacturer to visually determine component placement positions. However, there are times you may wish to provide drawings that impart additional clarity to your assembler in order to ease the setup of machines or other processes—this typically involves panelization dimensions or fiducial positions on the panel. In...

Jonathan Gottfried is co-founder of Major League Hacking, or MLH, the official student hackathon league. Major League Hacking’s vision is to inspire students worldwide from both traditional and non-traditional backgrounds. They’ve influenced new generations of engineers; from software, hardware, and mechanical disciplines in the events they have thrown worldwide. Learn more about Jonathan and his inspiring work at MLH.  Listen to the Podcast:...

  Upverter (previously known as Geppetto) is an online platform that allows anybody with access to a modern browser to develop their newest development board and move on to low volume manufacturing. One of the challenges in launching your product, especially hardware products, is that it requires an array of skill sets and some reasonable level of experience. Upverter gives designers and start ups that are transitioning into their growth phase a...