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PCB Design
Dynamic Drives provides the easiest and quickest way to get your Printed Circuit Boards designed. With more than 10 years experience designing PCBs.

When your circuit is ready for PCB layout, you can rely on our experienced IPC/CID certified designers (All hold a degree in EE and some of them a MSEE), to turn your circuit into a PCB design that’s guaranteed to match your net list and design constraints.

All designs are delivered with complete manufacturing and source files so you can out source to any manufacturer for fabrication.

We can do a 3D model file of your PCB, if requested, so you can easily integrate the PCB into your packaging. Let our expert designers do what they do best, design your next PCB.

Schematic Capture from hand drawn diagram, a sample PCB, CAD schematics, or any other input.

Design modification or improvement for product manufacturability and cost savings. Other services include documentation, mechanical drawing and plotting.

This is a quick checklist for your convenience to make sure all data necessary to design the PCB is available before you place an order.

· PCB material and copper and insulation layer thickness. If not specified, we will use FR-4 (Glass epoxy) with 0.062" PCB thickness, 1oz copper for single and double sided layers.

· PCB outline and exact dimensions in DXF or PDF file format

· Stack up assignment (ground, power or routing layers).

· Minimum trace thickness and spacing 0.007" will be used by default for both if not specified.

· Minimum via size. Vias with 0.035" Diameter pad and 0.019" Diameter finished hole will be used if not specified.

· Trace thickness and length constraints for power and other specific nets or segments. Trace widths of 0.010" for signal and 0.020" for power will be used if not specified.

· Special plating requirements such as nickel—gold plating or silver immersion. Copper plated holes and HASL (Hot Air Solder Level) will be specified as default.

· Solder mask and silkscreen material. Green LPI (Liquid Photo Image) solder mask and white ink silkscreen will be specified as default.

· Package information on ALL components on the PCB.

· Pin out and detail dimensions for unusual components.

· X-Y coordinates of components to be placed at exact locations. All coordinates must be specified relative to the origin at the lower left corner of the board. To eliminate ambiguity, specify the coordinates of at least two pins or features for each component.

· Preferred placement guidelines for groups of components.

· Placement of PCB part number, assembly part number, serial number, and other text. Specify copper or legend layers and top or bottom side.

· Other special mechanical features and design rules.

· Make sure mounting-hole dimensions and locations are specified.

The PCB design sequence

We need 50% down payment and 50% upon delivery of the finished work.

Dynamic Drives completes a PCB design in three phases that correspond to the normal design flow of a PCB:

Placement
Routing
Fabrication file generation

Both the placement and routing phases are critical, that's why we provide the opportunity for you to verify the design after these phases before the next one is started.
Upon receipt of a PCB design order the uploaded PCB information in the zip file is checked for completeness. The uploaded net list file is checked for connectivity errors. The components in the net list are matched with corresponding footprint library parts according to the specifications in the component package file or parts list you have provided. The footprints for unusual components not found in our library are created.

The board outline is created according to the DXF file or dimensions provided. With the number of layers requested, the layer stack-up is defined. All additional mechanical features of the board are also added here. Next the components that need to be located at exact coordinates are placed on the board and locked. The remaining components are placed according to the preferred placement guideline submitted; otherwise a placement strategy that reduces connection complexity is used as a default.

The placement stage of the PCB design flow is complete at this point. A set of check print files are created and emailed for your review.

Take as much time as necessary to thoroughly review this stage of the design for accuracy and provide feedback on necessary changes. The following require particular attention:

· Critical PCB outline dimensions and other mechanical features such as mounting hole locations

· Layer stack-up and assignment.

· Correct footprint and pin out of the components.

· Placement of components at exact coordinates.

Dynamic Drives generates a complete set of Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) files that describe the PCB in detail and are ready to be sent directly to a manufacturer for accurate PCB fabrication:

1. Top and bottom copper layers

2. Inner copper layers

3. Top and bottom Solder Mask

4. Top silkscreen

5. Bottom silkscreen

6. Top and bottom solder paste stencil

7. Drill Router file

8. Drill list file

9. Fabrication Drawing

10. Assembly Drawing

11. PCB design file

12. Netlist

13. 3D model file if applicable

Items 1 through 6 are in Gerber 274X photo plot format, the most common format used to accurately describe the PCB layers and features. (Not all layers apply to all PCB projects)

7 is in Excellon format, another standard format used for accurately drilling the PCB holes, 8 is a text file that lists all the drill diameters specified for the PCB.

The fabrication (9) and Assembly (10) drawings are in DXF format. The fabrication drawing includes all information necessary to fabricate the PCB. The Assembly drawing shows where each component must be placed on the PCB during assembly and includes a bottom view if there are components on the bottom side.

The PCB design file (11) is in PADS format and is the master design file from which all the other files are generated. Dynamic Drives also includes a final net list file and an ECO file (12). The final net list file describes the final connectivity of the PCB and includes any changes that were made during the PCB design such as gate swaps, pin swaps, test point additions, and other circuit modifications that were not included in the original net list.

The 3D model file (13) is in STEP file format. It provides a three dimensional CAD file of the final PCB. This file is very valuable when designing the enclosure around the PCB or integrating the PCB in a system of multiple interconnected PCBs. If you require different formats for the deliverable files, include a request in the Zip file. We will let you know if we can accommodate the format before starting the design.