Whether you’re an expert engineer or an at-home inventor, you’ve likely designed PCBs that fail due to a short circuit or burnt-out component. PCB designs are incredibly intricate, and you’re not alone in your trial and error. Circumvent some of these hard lessons by checking out these tips to optimize your PCB layout for a better performing PCB.

Research                                                                                                                   

Before you begin drawing up the plans for your next PCB, pause for a moment to consider why. Is your goal to improve an existing circuit board? Are you dreaming of an entirely innovative concept? Whichever your reason, make sure you know your end goal and research whether there are existing circuit board templates that you can use. This pre-work will save you a ton of time and keep you from reinventing the wheel if a solution already exists. You’ll also avoid repeating the mishaps of others when designing your PCB layout.

Create a Blueprint

Once you’re set on the outcome you’re hoping to achieve, it’s time to put your ideas into something tangible. Start with a hand-drawn sketch to map out your circuit board. This will allow you to see the flow and catch any errors before adding in the complication of technology. You can also have colleagues or other PCB hobbyists review your circuit board layout ideas for input before creating your virtual design.

Use a (Free) PCB Software

With your blueprint in hand, you’re ready to start designing the layout of your PCB. The best way to create a PCB layout is by using free PCB design software, like Advanced Circuit’s PCB Artist. PCB design software, like PCB Artist, will give you access to a components library with over 500,000 parts. It’s incredibly easy to search for a previously used component, add it, and rearrange as needed for your PCB layout. Never pay money to use PCB design software, as there are so many excellent free choices on the market.

This digital blueprint that you create using a PCB software is called a schematic. In your schematic, you’ll place your components, connectors, connections, and power sources. Eventually, this will become your PCB design that a manufacturer will use to create your PCB.

Most free PCB design software also comes with a design rule check so you can be confident that your PCB layout works and can be produced by the manufacturer of your choice.

Placement

The placement of your components during the schematics stage is incredibly critical to the viability of your PCB. Typically, you want to start by placing your most essential elements first, and then go from there with any flairs or add-ons. Keep in mind that you don’t want to overcrowd your PCB. Placing components and active elements too close together can result in high temperatures. Overheating your PCB can cause components to burn and, ultimately, lead to your PCB failing.

You’ll also want to check with the manufacturer, and during the design, rule check to see if there are placement restrictions. In general, you want to leave at least 100 mils of space between any component and the edge of your PCB. You also want to evenly space out your components and organize so that like-components are oriented the same direction, as possible.

Routing

As you plan and design your PCB’s layout, you’ll want to consider the different routing options and specifications. On a finished PCB, the routing is the copper traces that run along the green board and indicate the flow of electricity between the components. The general rule of thumb is to make the route distance between elements as short and direct as possible. You also want to make sure that you make your traces wide enough to handle the high temperatures in an electrical circuit. When in doubt about your PCB overheating, you can always add in via, or holes, to channel electricity to the other side of the PCB.

Layers

Thanks to advances in our scientific understanding of electricity and circuits, we can now easily manufacture PCBs with multiple layers. The more layers you have on a PCB layout, the more complex your circuit will be. Extra layers allow you to add in more components and tends to have higher connectivity.

Multilayer PCBs appear in more sophisticated electrical devices, but if you find your PCB layout is becoming overcrowded, this could be an excellent way to problem-solve. Multilayer PCB designs do come with higher costs, but Advanced Circuits offers excellent deals on two and four-layer PCB fabrication.

PCB Manufacturer

You’ve put in the hard work and effort to design your PCB, so make sure you select a manufacturer that can bring your plan to life. Different PCB manufacturers use different fabrication processes and use varying qualities of components. It would be a shame to have an incredible PCB layout, only to receive a low-quality product with a lousy soldering job or faulty components. Choosing a manufacturer that uses surface mounting technology is your best bet for a PCB that precisely represents your PCB layout. This fabrication method is mostly automated and reduces the risk of human error when creating your physical PCB.

Create a Prototype

Even if you’re 100% confident in your PCB, it’s always a good idea to order a prototype. Even experts know that you’ll likely want to make tweaks to your PCB design once you see how your prototype performs in its given application. After testing out your prototype, you can go back to the drawing board and update your PCB layout for optimal output.

Advanced Circuits Can Help

Advanced Circuits is the third largest PCB manufacturer in the U.S. Their company has you covered from beginning to end in your PCB layout process. You can utilize their free PCB design software and file check to ensure your layout is bug-free and ready to go. Advanced Circuits has an incredibly accurate fabrication process that will ensure your PCB is delivered precisely as you designed it.

PCB designers are continuously challenged to meet the needs of electronic products through engineering boards with the most effective placement of components that will accommodate the required functionality while meeting the specifications of the product to contain the board. Components that are smaller in size must, therefore, be placed closer together while avoiding potential negative impact from placement issues.

The truth is that preparation plays an important role in PCB layout results. Beginning with the most important requirements can help streamline the design process by determining the constraints on the design. Sizing and placement of critical elements, including minimum and maximum tolerances, required components, electrical demands including impedance factors and power needs all combine to generate an initial set of constraints for the PCB design. It’s also a good practice to create and save sets of like constraints and templates for subsequent designs or projects. Having time-proven templates available can streamline the design of new boards or upgrades to existing PCBs. Once constraints are set and understood, it makes the details much less error-prone, saving time and money.

Board layout techniques can include such strategies as devices embedded on inner layers of PCBs to reduce board size. This must be evaluated with manufacturers to verify that these capabilities can be met in actual fabrication.

Errors or lack of planning in the layout specification of PCB design can cause multiple problems:

• Manufactured products that don’t perform as specified or designed
• Quality or functional issues may surface due to components and circuit paths that conflict with other board elements from factors such as electromagnetic interference, current flow, track width, component size, and physical board limitations.
• Boards may not be able to be manufactured exactly as specified, resulting in back-and-forth decisions between the designer and manufacturer. This extends lead time and increases cost.
• Worst case – the engineer goes back to the “drawing board” to rework the design for manufacturability.

In practice, most PCBs are designed with CAD or other PCB design tools that the technician is most familiar and comfortable with. In truth, once the design has been completed the fabricator will manufacture the board from files or documentation generated from the design tools using their own automation tools and sophisticated Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) manufacturing techniques. The two processes may not be totally synchronized in their processing, resulting in boards that may not produce the desired results, or may not be easily manufactured, causing delays and increasing costs.

How Should PCB Designers Meet the Demands of Effective PCB Layout?

Designers are therefore incentivized to produce a design that will not only produce the desired functionality consistently, but will generate a layout that allows efficient manufacturing at the desired cost point. Engineers need to understand the manufacturing process to some level in order to comprehend how fabrication methodology will react to their designs. Multi-layer boards and double-sided laminates or double-sided component placement designs can make the layout all the more critical in designing for manufacturing (DFM).

Placement of components may vary during manufacturing as determined by automation tools with results that are not precisely what the designer intended. In many cases, the end product is acceptable and functions properly, but failures could also be an unintended consequence.

Routing of circuit paths can be altered during manufacturing that will still produce a workable PCB, but may also result in boards that are more difficult to install or repair than the original design had intended.

An effective tool available to PCB designers prior to prototype creation is DFM software. Such tools analyze the designer’s files and evaluate them for any issues or omissions related to fabrication. Combining the use of PCB design tools and DFM applications is the best solution to designing PCBs of the highest quality that will be functional and cost-effective to manufacture.

It’s also important to work with a fabricator who provides 24/7 support of all technical aspects of PCB orders, including a detailed review of submitted designs with CAM tools.