The three most important problems I faced when starting in Printed Circuit Board Design

Jan '24 (edited) • ☁️General

1. 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭.

Seriously, I had no clue. What project to build? What could be interesting and useful? Building a blinking LED circuit after spending years studying electronics was not really compelling enough for me.

2. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞.

Maxwells, Kirchoff, Fourier, Laplace... When am I going to apply all this stuff in real life? It turns out more often than you think. Although you might not have to calculate the equations by hand, you still need to integrate these concepts into your PCB designs.

3. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐬, 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞.

This was basically an eraser button.

First, you start by building "Spider" circuits on a breadboard with messy cables and connections.

Then you move on to building Printed Circuit Boards, and you try to apply the same concepts. Circuits work fine (sometimes) until you reach a point where they don't, and you have no clue why.

It's time to go back to the drawing board and understand the fundamentals, starting from Electromagnetic Compatibility.

This is perhaps one of the most feared tests for Printed Circuit Board Designers. These are probably the most time-consuming and money-wasting processes that a company launching a new product will have to go through.

And if you want to be a successful designer, you just have to face it and get good at it.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐏𝐂𝐁 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Dario

#pcbhackers

#pcbdesign #electronics #hardware #emc #emi

#fresuelectronics

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