DFM profile collaboration and management

I have always had a certain affinity for the saying ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.’ A lifetime of experience has seemingly proven this true time and again. Perhaps it is my overly active attention to detail, perhaps my longevity within the industry, whatever it is, I have been continually reminded of this over the past several decades when I think of the process of introducing a PCB design into manufacturing.

You may think of that as a bit of hyperbole, and you could be partially right. I certainly can’t overlook the many incremental improvements we have seen during this time, yet still, the industry continues to remain hampered, seemingly waiting for a solution to fall from the sky and strike us on the head. While apples do fall, and revolutionary advancements do come, I suggest that continuing to wait for the next big revolution is futile.

PCB design complexity relative to capabilities

One of the key factors when transferring designs to manufacturers is within the design itself and its relative complexity and use of cutting-edge technologies. Simpler designs obvious are easier to manufacturer, with complex designs being potentially problematic. There are many ways to define design complexity, but in the case of this article, I ‘ll separate it into two general groups:

• Designs within process capabilities
• Designs which exceed process capabilities

Most PCB produced today exist within the first category; being designs within process capabilities. These are the preferred type of design, and are provided to the supplier of choice. In fact – the design team ideally wants to ensure that the production process can be followed without special requirements. 

In contrast to this, there are often designs which exceed process capabilities.  These tend to occur when the design team knows what they are asking is cutting edge, and potentially even beyond what is sustainable for a production product.

Regardless of the cause and type of the complexity, collaborating often and earlier with the PCB manufacturing supplier of is of upmost importance. This can be accomplished easier using a robust DFM profile.

Leveraging Manufacturing Driven Design with your DFM profile

There is a long-standing precedent of validating a design against internal design requirements and industry standards. This is generally seen as a critically important step prior to releasing it into production. A main principle behind Manufacturing Driven Design is to also connect the design validation process directly to the suppliers’ process capabilities by way of a DFM profile.  The depth of that analysis is based on the details the supplier provides.  The validation could as shallow as those governed by industry standards, or as detailed as a supplier is willing to share.  The analysis details could be for a specific plant, production line, design type, special handling process, etc.  The depth of the analysis collaboration has little bounds.

Interconnected relationships

When Valor NPI was first connected to PCBflow to help with this crucial handoff, the collaboration enabled suppliers to share process capabilities seamlessly with their clients, the PCB designers.  A designer starts by creating a relationship within PCBflow with their preferred suppliers.  Once that relationship is in place, the suppliers can release their process capabilities, referred to as DFM profiles, in a safe and secure manner. 

This communication is analogous to sharing life stories on social media.  Valor NPI will then list the suppliers’ DFM profiles for selection and use for analysis purposes.  This same functionality is available in Xpedition being the first EDA solution to enable a safe, secure, and a completely automated means for suppliers to collaborate with their process capabilities starting from the beginning of the design process.  No emails, no unsecure text file to share, no importing of a potentially unsafe file, etc.  With a simple point and click the up-to-date supplier DFM profiles are used by either Xpediton or Valor NPI.  The seamless connection of suppliers using PCBflow to designers using either Xpedition or Valor NPI represents a collaboration milestone in obtaining the first step into Manufacturing Driven Design.

Next generation release

Recently another step in realizing Manufacturing Driven Design has been achieved, only the collaboration this time is within a design or supplier organization.  These organizations are often spread around the world.  Even within a country, there are often multiple sites or employees working remotely.  In these cases, managing DFM profiles for a non-centralized organization is often challenging to say the least.  Many attempt to create a “Center of Excellence” that tailor DFM Profiles and then distribute them via email, or by manually updating content globally.  This observation led to the ability for an organization to share internally developed DFM Profiles safely and securely using PCBflow.  Suppliers have always been able to create and distribute DFM Profiles using Valor NPI.  With 2409 Valor NPI designer organizations can also publish DFM Profiles to PCBflow for the safe, secure, and instantaneous distribution of internally managed DFM Profiles worldwide.  No need to email, sharing a file, or manual replacing a file.

Take your own leap

In an age where billions of dollars are transferred instantly through the air, why is it that process manufacturing validation of a design requires so much manual intervention?  Combining the ability of PCBflow to bridge the gap between suppliers and designers and even the gap within their own organization is a significant step forward in the realization of Manufacturing Driven Design.  If you are waiting for the giant leap for all of mankind to come, may I suggest that leap may never come.  Please take the next step of safe and secure sharing and distribution of manufacturing process constraints, DFM Profile, with us at Siemens.

Begin leveraging the design knowledge of your manufacturer through PCBflow’s intuitive online interface. Sign up today and we can aid you in crafting effective DFM profiles using PCBflow, ensuring a smooth fabrication process without compromising the integrity of the design.

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