A new electrical rule-driven for PCB proofing: interconnection synthesis
Interconnection synthesis is a typical term for the real-time electrical rule-driven method. That is, in the physical layout and routing process, the interconnection synthesizer performs real-time analysis according to the constraints of the electrical rules, and extracts the wiring strategy that meets the designer's requirements, so that the design is successful in one pass. This method accurately integrates electrical requirements and physical realization through interconnection and synthesis, and fundamentally eliminates the defects of the physical rule-driven method.
The integrated process of PCB proofing interconnection is as follows:
Input noise constraints and timing constraints rules in the tool;
Timing control layout to meet timing constraint requirements;
Perform signal integrity pre-optimization;
Board-level integration to ensure that the critical line network meets electrical requirements;
Complete the wiring of ordinary wire netting;
Comprehensive optimization of wiring.
The electrical rule-driven method can effectively evaluate the quality before designing the layout, detect the signal distortion, and determine the matching network topology and the appropriate terminal matching structure and resistance. After the layout is completed, post-verification can be performed, and the waveform can be inspected intuitively with a software oscilloscope. The timing and distortion problems found at this time can be solved by the routing synthesis optimization function.
PCB Proofing Gold Tool Combination and Design Process
Now many EDA manufacturers can provide EDA tools for high-speed system PCB design to help users effectively improve design quality and shorten design cycles in this field. The most representative of the EDA system board-level tools that apply the electrical rule-driven method is the ICX software package from MentorGraphics of the United States. It was the first to propose the concept of interconnection and synthesis, and it is also the most mature tool combination in the industry. This software package has the current industry-popular plug-and-play feature, and it can be integrated into the PCB classic EDA design process of many manufacturers.
PCB Proofing Mixed Signal Design Solution
As design miniaturization has become fashionable, consumers need high-performance, low-cost products. In order to adapt to market competition, manufacturers require R&D personnel to develop different types and different functional configurations of high-performance and low-cost products in the shortest possible time. Products, occupy the market. This brings many new design challenges to designers. For example: the use of digital-analog hybrid technology, or even radio frequency technology, on the same substrate to achieve the purpose of miniaturization and improving product functions. The mobile phone that has taken the world by storm is the most typical example. The industry also has corresponding solutions-design team, concurrent design, derivation and design reuse are the most typical strategies.
PCB proofing traditional serial design
That is, after the electronic engineer has completed all the front-end circuit design, it is transferred to the physical board-level designer to complete the back-end implementation. The design cycle is the sum of circuit design and board-level design time. After the novel parallel design has become the mainstream design idea and the hybrid technology is widely adopted, the serial design method is somewhat out of date. We must innovate from the design method, while using powerful EDA tools to assist designers in design, in order to meet the requirements of timely listing. As we all know, it is impossible for each of us to become an expert in all fields, nor is it possible to complete all the work best and fastest in a short period of time. The concept of the design team was put forward in this context and has been widely used. At present, many companies are adopting the method of design team to cooperate in product development. That is to say, according to the complexity of the design and the different functional modules, the entire design is divided into different functional BLOCK blocks, and different design developers carry out the logic circuit and PCB board design in parallel; then at the top level of the design, the final design results of each BLOCK block, Import in the way of "devices" and synthesize a whole board design. This method is called PCB design reuse. Through this method, it is not difficult to see that it can greatly shorten the design cycle, and the design time is only the sum of the design time of the most time-consuming BLOCK block and the time of the back-end interface connection processing.
PCB proofing tool standardization and third-party tool integration
At present, there are many manufacturers engaged in the development of electronic design automation (EDA) tools, such as Cadence, Synopsis, Mentor Graphics as the main EDA tool suppliers; in addition, there are many other EDA manufacturers. EDA covers a wide range of fields, including networks, communications, computers, aerospace, etc. Products involve system board design, system digital/IF analog/digital-analog hybrid/RF simulation design, system IC/ASIC/FPGA design/simulation/verification, software and hardware co-design, etc. It is difficult for any EDA supplier to provide the strongest design process that meets the different design needs of various users. From the perspective of market share, Cadence's strong product is IC board design and service, Synopsis's strong product is logic synthesis, and Mentor Graphics' strong product is PCB design and deep sub-micron IC design verification and testing. Undoubtedly, modern electronic design increasingly relies on EDA tools and technologies, while EDA manufacturers adopt product standardization methods to meet the needs of users. Many designers adopt the strong products of multiple companies in their design process to form The best design process. Various EDA manufacturers have improved the compatibility of their own strong products and the ability to integrate third-party products to adapt to the potential needs of users.
PCB Proofing Derivative Technology
Manufacturers focusing on civilian products often need to develop products with different functions and different grades to occupy the market in order to meet the needs of users at different levels. In the past, for product development with different functions, we often used different design processes to implement them separately, that is, using different design data to produce boards with different functions to realize the product. The disadvantage is that the cost is increased and the design cycle is prolonged, and at the same time, the artificial unreliability of the product is increased. Many manufacturers now use derivation technology to solve the above problems, that is, use the same design process data to derive products of different functional series, so as to achieve the purpose of reducing costs and improving quality. In order to meet the needs of users, many EDA manufacturers have added Derived Rule Check (DRC) functions to their products, such as Mentor Graphics' BoardStation, Zuken-Redac, etc. Taking BoardStation as an example, it provides a complete The distribution of the derivative functional modules of the front-end circuit design, the physical layout rule inspection to the back-end, the component list of different derivative products, the production and processing data, the light drawing data and the processing assembly drawing, etc., completely ended this type of PCB design trouble.