5 Facts of PCB Design Info That Your Boss Needs to Know

1. PCBs Represent Approximately 31% of Overall Product Costs. PCB design info like this is a good rule of thumb to help your boss understand whether your project is coming in under budget or ballooning out of control, as well as some of the issues that can affect production costs. For example, sourcing components can have a long lead time and cause product delivery delays, which means higher project costs. This is one of the most important PCB facts if your boss is concerned with the amount spent on a project.

2. They Use Traces, Not Wires. Most electronic devices use wires to transmit data and power, while PCBs use traces. These traces take up much less space, allowing a circuit board to be smaller and thinner. The tradeoff, though, is that traces are made of copper, which can be expensive. Only small amounts of copper are used, but depending on the weight of the copper, it’s still an expense that needs to be considered as part of the overall PCB budget.

3. Customization Is Expensive. PCBs can be designed to your exact specifications: every program, every component, and every material is created from the ground up. A lot of companies think they want or need this, to make their device do exactly what they want. But designing PCBs this way is not only time-consuming, it’s very expensive. So most designers use a set of pre-specified PCB design info parameters for their PCBs. It makes things both easier and cheaper and still allows them complete freedom in terms of defining what the finished product can do. Of all the PCB facts listed here, it is important to keep this one in mind so you don't overextend the cost of your project through over-customization; sometimes settling for something less exact is worth the amount it saves you.

4. The Technology Is Constantly Evolving. There are standard procedures and components that designers can use to keep production costs down, but at the same time, the technology behind printed circuit board design is constantly making advancements. New materials are being developed and old materials are becoming obsolete. Biodegradable PCBs are currently in the works, to make electronic devices more environmentally friendly. Graphene is also being experimented with as a new material consisting of bonded carbon atoms. The material is just one atom thick, which can lead to a smaller, more efficient circuit board.

5. Improving PCB Technology Means Lower Costs and Faster Time to Market. The new technologies described above may be fascinating to you, but will they matter to your boss? What effect will they have on your bottom line? In order to improve the overall quality of your products, it’s important to be willing to experiment with new PCB design info and innovations when they present the opportunity to improve the product or design. By discovering and implementing these improvements, you can make the printed circuit board design process faster and more efficient. This saves time and will in turn result in lower production costs and ultimately a faster time to market. Investing a little bit into the PCB design process can save time and money in the long run and ultimately lead to a better product. Especially using PCB mounting bosses which allow you to be able to quickly and easily mount PCBs saving you time and money. 

Driving the Point Home

These are just a few bits of PCB info that can help your boss better understand general PCB design info how PCB assembly works, and how important it is to the overall project and finished product. You can use these facts to start a dialogue that can ultimately make things easier and clearer both for you and for them. But the conversation just gets started with your boss, and there’s a whole set of other stakeholders you’ll need to justify your design to throughout your project, including manufacturing. Learn how easy it can be to communicate design intent right the first time in Altium Designer^® with Draftsman^® software. Visit the What's New page to learn more about PCB design info and PCB info.