CIRCUIT BOARD FAQ
What is Clear River Tech's design philosophy?
What is the perfect input package?
If we're so good, why do we recommend you checking our work?
What is Clear River Tech's Warranty Policy?
What are the deliverables?
How do we price a job?
What do you need to quote a job?
What is Clear River Tech's design philosophy?
To understand our design philosophy, one has to understand the "status quo" of design philosophies that are present in the field today. Although I speak here from the PC Board perspective, the same philosophy applies to all our services.
The present state of the industry is profit driven, as it should be, but, with the electronic product industry (as with any other), the problems lie with not the determination of profit, but the focus on the profit. What has taken place is that "normal" companies look at the bottom line first and make adjustments from there. This often reflects itself in the customer taking a "back seat" to the profit margin. The customer knows this, and unfortunately accepts it. Somewhere in the back of his/her mind, they think "this is just part of doing business....a necessary evil." We firmly believe that the opposite is true. When the customer is happy, the profit comes later. The customer ends up knowing that we are part of their team and we work towards them winning. A cruel example of this that happens often is if a normal company spots an obvious error in the schematic or mechanical drawing, they may look at it as "ah...I'll be seeing this board again," hence concentrating on the profit. Our goal is to never see that board again if we can help it. If we see an obvious error, we will mention it and hopefully we can resolve it together. That is why on PC board design, we actually have three customers. The fab house, the assembly house, and the client are all our customers. When we can make all three happy, our goal has been accomplished.
That is simply the attitude we take. This is a service business and therefore service is what you will get as a Clear River Tech customer.
Clear River Tech is NOT a job-shop. If you are looking for that mentality, there are thousands of other service bureaus that can provide you with that. We pride ourselves on being part of the team, just as loyal to you and your bottom line as any other member hired by you.
If you are looking for the best value for the dollar, then give us a try. How much does that extra revision cost you? How much does stopping production cost you? How much does that extra day or week cost you in time to market? Does your present service bureau ask about:
• clock and/or data rate?
• The type of busses on your card?
• Decoupling needs?
• Possible oversights?
These are the kinds of questions we ask on every project. Does your service bureau ask these questions? Have you ever debugged a decoupling problem? If you have, you know that you never want to again. What does that lost time mean to your company? What does having confidence in the integrity of your PC Card mean to you?
If you can now envision what we bring to the table technically, then you can also imagine what other things we bring as well. We emphatically believe that every one of our representatives needs to embrace the following qualities:
• A Solution Oriented Attitude
• A Positive Working Relationship
• Integrity
• Confidentiality
• Professionalism
• Creativity
• Open Mindedness
Now you know what our philosophy is. In a nutshell....it is nothing more than honest service to the customer.
What is the perfect input package?
In any team effort, communication is an absolute must; therefore, it is imperative that the communication between circuit designer, board designer, and package designer be very much open, frequent, and clear. The best place to start and most important is the transfer of information from your company to us.
There are generalities that we must assume here. First, and foremost, information must be clear and concise. Many times individuals have given us too little information, but there is a point where too much information can be a problem too. Too much information can slow the process down and create ambiguity. Limit your information to what is needed, rather than throwing everything this way.
Secondly, the information must be consistent with each other. A bill of materials that has a manufacturer part number that does not match a part specification that has been provided is an obvious demonstration of this; or even when a mechanical drawing has a part called out that is not on the bill of materials. You get the idea.
Third, when giving out part numbers, use the entire manufacturer's part number. (i.e. 74LS04N rather than 74LS04). Digi-key Corporation (though they offer wonderful service), does not make parts. The manufacturer's part number is where the buck stops anyway. There have sometime been errors on the DK website, so take the time to put the manufacturer's part number down. An even still better alternative is to utilize your company's part numbering system. We prefer to have your company's system that calls a part in your library. More on this later.
Lastly, please use alpha-numeric pins for things such as transistors, diodes, even polarized caps, especially if there is more than one person working with your schematic symbols. Different engineers, different naming conventions. NUMERIC PIN NUMBERS ON THESE ITEMS ARE THE NUMBER ONE REASON BOARDS HAVE UNWANTED REVISIONS. We cannot stress this point enough.
Ok, what is the "perfect input package"? here's a list.
• Schematic Diagram (preferably in electronic form and not on a napkin).
• Bill of Materials with your company's part numbering system and mfg's P/N.
• Netlist (Pads preferred) with the part section calling out your P/N or MFG P/N.
• Board Outline with all "hardplaced" items dimensioned, referenced, and oriented. Keep-out and height restricted areas should also be defined.
• Component specifications that include pinout and mechnical diagrams at minimum.
• Any and all design rules that include special treatment (i.e.; controlled Z, differential pairs, High speed busses, High Power, etc).
• Any application specific layout info provided by the mfg if applicable.
• Company board number, Assembly Number, and other Nomenclature info.
• Company specific rules if you have them.
So that's a perfect input package. See how close you can come to it.
If we're so good, why do we recommend you checking our work?
This is a great question. The answer is not so obvious though. Do we have confidence in ourselves and our abilities? The answer to that is yes. But there are two very real reasons that checking what we do is necessary.
First, we are dealing with more than one person in the effort, and try as we might, one cannot define every aspect of the design. What we may "interpret" in your ideas or design notes may be different than your interpretations. This means that checking our work is a link of communication between us....in short, a necessary step. For example, If not pre-defined, a connector pin-out will emulate the manufacturer's specification. If the engineer had a different idea and did not convey that idea up front or the idea was misinterpreted, the result is disastrous. A simple 2 minute check can avoid thousands of dollars in lost materials and in lost time.
Secondly, We are human. We understand that it is important to, as a team, check each other's work. In my career, I have seen literally thousands of schematics and net lists. Very few are 100% correct on the first shot. We catch a lot of these mistakes. It's no big deal, if we can have the attitude of one hand washing the other, than we can work together as a team. It is possible to type 0.195" instead of 0.159". Yes, we are human. If it is our issue we will handle it in a professional courteous way. You're human too. I hope you do the same. So, If we can check each other's work, we can minimize these kinds of things from happening.
What is Clear River Tech's Warranty Policy?
What are the deliverables?
In any contract, whether short or long term, deliverable items are exchanged for the promise of payment. Although Clear River Tech claims to be different in many ways, this is not one of the ways we are different; but, the actual deliverables may be more than what you're used to.
We provide the following files for PCB Design Services:
1) FAB_{JOB#}BOARD#_REV.ZIP – Everything needed to send to the fabricator (Gerbers, Notes, IPC Netlist)
2) ASY_{JOB#}ASSY#_REV.ZIP – Everything needed to send to the assembler (PDF of Assembly Drawing, Stencil Artwork, X-Y Data, PADS ASCII Data
3) DAT_{JOB#}BOARD#_REV.ZIP – Database Archive (Database in three formats, Netlist, Net Length Report
4) AutoCAD Fab and Assembly files are optionally available for an extra charge.
Schematic Capture:
1) SCH{JOB#}SCH#_REV.ZIP – Schematic in Either OrCad Capture®
Engineering Projects:
Typically Engineering deliverables are defined in the Project Proposal but typical deliverables are:
Schematic files in native Data and PDF
BOM in Excel
All PCB Data
Hardware Definition Document
Software Definition Document
Prototype units
Autorouter:
Specctra® *
.WIR Specctra® *
.RTE Specctra® * .SES
How do we price a job?
You can view our pricing policy right here.
What do you need to quote a job?
PCB Design
A PC Board can be quoted by knowing three things:
1) The board size
2) The pin count (usually derived from the BOM)
3) Any special requirements (i.e. RF, diff pairs, High SNR Requirement, Etc.)
Other Services:
Everything else requires a fair amount of interaction with the customer. Contact us by phone or by email.
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