Electronics design enhanced by collaboration between teams

This blog is co-authored by Zvi Feuer, Siemens PLM and Craig Armenti, Mentor Graphics

Watch the Digital Enterprise Factory Showcase Tour video blog series to experience the power of digitalization in manufacturing.  Today, at the third stop on our tour, you’ll learn how Xpedition, Teamcenter and NX work collaboratively to help deliver products quickly and reliably.

Electronics Design Enhanced by Collaboration Between Teams

During this stop on the Tour, the electrical design department makes a change to the processor in the printed circuit board in the field PG product.  The change will require a close collaboration between the engineers using Xpedition, an integrated multi-board electronics systems design and verification flow, and the mechanical engineers using NX.  Collaboration between the teams will ensure high quality and reduced time-to-market.

In video #1, “Electrical Design,” the tour guide describes how Teamcenter, Xpedition and NX break down potential barriers between electrical and mechanical domains and work collaboratively in real time.

Watch the video!

Electrical Analysis and Verification

The required change to the processor on the printed circuit board will need to include analysis and verification of the updated PCB in order to ensure optimal design performance and faster time to market.  Xpedition offers a complete suite of analysis and verification software that can be utilized throughout the board design flow. The functionality includes signal integrity, power integrity, electromagnetic interference, electromagnetic compatibility, and vibration and acceleration analyses.

After the processor is updated the team starts verification with signal integrity and power integrity analysis. The team then moves on to electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic interference analysis.  The team concludes verification with vibration and acceleration analysis.

In video #2, “Electrical Analysis and Verification,” you’ll learn how Xpedition ensures design teams are able to develop high quality products quickly and reliably.

Watch the video!

View the previous two Digital Enterprise Factory Showcase Tour video blogs:

Introduction to the Digital Enterprise Factory Showcase

Integrated design & simulation for optimizing design solutions

What do you think of the video blog?  You can leave a comment below or contact the team directly by using the address:   df_showcase.plm@siemens.com

Transcript of video: Electronics Design

Here in the electrical design department we have been informed that the Printed Circuit Board for the Field PG product will require a change to the processor.  This change will require close collaboration between the electrical engineers using Xpedition software and the mechanical engineers using NX software. Collaboration between the teams will allow them to work concurrently, ensuring both high quality and reduced time to market.  Siemens Teamcenter, Xpedition, and NX, break down potential barriers between the electrical and mechanical domains through seamless data management and tools integration.

In Xpedition, Teamcenter integration is available during both schematic design and PCB layout. In both cases the integration can be used to perform tasks such as open, check-in, check-out, BOM compare and save-as. From Teamcenter the members of the design teams have access to the bill of materials along with all of the project data.

In a typical design flow the mechanical engineer uses NX to define the critical features such as the board outline, hole locations, cutouts or cavities, placement and routing keep-in and keep-out areas, height restricted areas, and the placement of critical components. Once defined the baseline information is exported to Xpedition for the electrical designer.

The electrical designer accepts the baseline information into Xpedition and then places all of the electrical components including the IC’s, resistors and capacitors, and of course the processor. The electrical information from Xpedition is then sent to the mechanical engineer to review in NX. The mechanical engineer accepts the electrical placement information in NX and both domains are now in sync.

In Xpedition the electrical designer changes the placement to accommodate the new processor. The incremental placement information is then sent to the mechanical engineer in NX. In NX, the mechanical engineer reviews and accepts the incremental placement changes. There is no need to start from scratch every time data is exchanged.

The real-time exchange of information ensures that the Xpedition and NX designs remain synchronized throughout the product development process.

Transcript of video: Electronics Analysis & Verification

Here in the electrical engineering department we have been informed that the Printed Circuit Board for the Field PG product will require a change to the processor.  This change will need to include analysis and verification of the updated PCB in order to ensure optimal design performance and faster time to market.  Xpedition offers a complete suite of analysis and verification software that can be utilized throughout the board design flow. The functionality includes signal integrity, power integrity, electromagnetic interference, electromagnetic compatibility, and vibration and acceleration analyses.

After the processor is updated the team starts verification with signal integrity and power integrity analysis. This functionality includes checks for issues with termination, shielding, differential impedance, power net width and decoupling capacitor proximity. Each check includes an explanation of the rule. Here the team runs the differential pair phase matching rule against the PCIE differential pairs. Notice that four violations are detected. Each violation is highlighted in Red on the canvas, with suggestions on how to correct the violation displayed in the details window.

The team then moves on to electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic interference analysis. This functionality includes checks for issues with traces crossing splits, reference plane changes, coupling to I/O nets and via stub length. As before, each check includes an explanation of the rule. Here the team runs the nets crossing gaps rule against all high-speed signals contained on the design. Notice that five violations are detected. As before, each violation is highlighted in Red on the canvas along with suggestions on how to correct the violation displayed in the details window.

The team concludes verification with vibration and acceleration analysis. This functionality enables early detection of PCB design vulnerabilities due to physical use. Here the team runs Highly Accelerated Lifecycle Testing on the design with several options to review the results. One option is to review each potential failure in detail to better understand the failure frequencies. Another option is to animate the stress on the PCB with the problematic parts highlighted as appropriate throughout the animation.

The Xpedition suite of analysis and verification software ensures design teams are able to develop high quality products quickly and reliably.