PCB News - What is a real PCB design

What is a real PCB design
With the advent of the era of high-speed design, PCB design has evolved from a simple pendulum device and wire drawing to a multi-disciplinary specialty based on electrical engineering that integrates electronics, heat, machinery, and chemical engineering. The quality of PCB design directly determines the quality and cycle of product development, and has become a key link in the product design chain. Today, with the division of labor in society becoming more and more refined, PCB design has gradually become an independent subject. In Europe and America, professional design companies have strongly promoted the development and application of new technologies and new products.
From the end of the last century to the beginning of this century, due to cost considerations, foreign PCB design companies have established branches in China, gradually forming a cooperation model of "overseas orders + overseas layout + mainland wiring + overseas audit + mainland PCB processing". Foreign companies put the core of PCB design in their headquarters, and hand over wiring with relatively low technical content and heavy workload to their mainland subsidiaries. Many PCB design companies have appeared in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Fuzhou, Shanghai and other places. Most of them are "layout" companies that focus on wiring, rather than PCB design companies in the full sense.
With the rise of domestic telecommunications companies represented by Huawei, ZTE, and UT, these companies have gradually mastered some core PCB design technologies. They have built high-speed PCB laboratories that cost tens of millions of dollars, and continue to have face-to-face meetings with overseas first-class experts. Technical communication and exchange. The domestic PCB design level has also taken a big step imperceptibly.

In the past two years, professional PCB design companies have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain, and a number of professional PCB design companies with high design quality and level have emerged. As an emerging force, these companies have raised the domestic PCB design industry to a higher level., From the previous PCB LAYOUT (pull wire, drawing board) to the simulation analysis, layout, wiring, technical support PCB full-process service; among them, Yibo Technology is a typical representative.
The PCB design industry is an emerging industry. From the author's understanding, it has its own unique characteristics:
1. Low barriers to entry. Getting started is simple, and the initial capital requirements are not high.
2. Lots of software. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, so choosing the right tool is very important.
3. High experience requirements, deep professional accumulation and broad knowledge acquisition are required.
4. There must be a scale; the software platform, library building, SI, emc, DFX must have a dedicated person responsible, each technical point requires at least 2-3 people, and the optical platform technology must have at least 10 people, taking into account the special service for customers According to the needs of the design team, a professional design company must have more than 20 people in order to survive lastingly and effectively.
Therefore, as a professional design company, if you want to adapt to this industry, you must set your own position. Carry out the reasonable positioning of the company based on the expertise and experience of the own team. At present, judging from the introduction of many companies, they are all-round. Even a company with only a few people, whether it is high speed or low speed, and no matter what product it is, seems to be omnipotent. It seems that Chinese design companies are all-powerful. In fact, this creates hidden dangers for the development of seemingly booming companies.
Due to the unclear positioning of some professional design companies and the unrealistic promotion of unlimited enlargement, the overall integrity of the Chinese PCB design company has been reduced by overseas customers. They expressed doubts about the design ability of Chinese design companies, and the quality and integrity of "Design in China" were compromised in front of overseas customers. The author received a business letter from the XXXPCB design company when I was employed in a communications company, saying that they had designed 50,000 Connection, 30,000 pin single boards, 20G signals and so on. I think such a design company should do a good job of self-examination.
The PCB design industry is exactly a technical service industry. Common customer needs are as follows:
1. Resource outsourcing. Generally, customers have their own full-time PCB design team. Only when their own resources cannot meet the needs of design progress and design quality, they will look for some fixed and complementary design companies. The requirements for design companies are very high, and they are all identified by insiders.
2. Total outsourcing: generally for small and medium-sized customers who have no or a small number of full-time PCB design engineers. In this way, while looking for a design company, they hope to cooperate with a company with strength and security.
3. Technical consulting and learning outsourcing: I have a PCB design team, but the overall strength needs to be improved, so I learn other people's methods and technologies through outsourcing. They are very particular about the technical strength of the design company.
In Yibo, there is such a customer. Originally, there was also a strong PCB design team, but due to the company's high product progress and technical requirements, I wanted to learn and improve through outsourcing. But after trying several cooperations, the hardware designers found that the communication with the outsourcing company was better, and the service attitude and response speed were obviously better than those of the company's designers. The originally planned 35-day PCB design cycle actually ended in 12 days. Later, the hardware engineers of the company tended to outsource design.