Author Archives: Duane
BoM Process
All of this talk about BoMs these days, (all of my talk, that is), kind of begs the question of how BoMs are put together. An Excel spreadsheet seems to be the most common “BoM management” tool in use today. … Continue reading
Speaking of Reference Designators …
In my prior post about BOMs, I gave a few examples of reference designator formats in the BOM. BOMs are a common item that have standards but no standards as are reference designators. There are actually a number of standards … Continue reading
BOMS Away
Yes, I’m talking about BoMs (bills of materials), not bombs. That would be silly and irrelevant. At least mostly irrelevant. If you make bombs, it wouldn’t be, but it would probably be all secret so we couldn’t talk about it. … Continue reading
Posted in Screaming Circuits Blog
Tagged bill of materials, BoM, Gerber, IPC-2581, standards
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Let’s Get Small, as in 0.3mm
Not long ago, I wrote about a 0.3mm pitch wafer-scale BGA we received and were asked to place. The gist of that article was that those parts are very small and we d0n’t yet have a process that we feel … Continue reading
Posted in Screaming Circuits Blog
Tagged 0.3mm BGA, Components, wafer-scale packages
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It (0.3mm) Finally Happened
Back in January of 2012, I wrote about the possibility of 0.3mm pitch BGAs being used here and there. I predicted that in a year, we’d see some 0.3mm pitch BGAs showing up. I was about three months off. Almost … Continue reading
Posted in Screaming Circuits Blog
Tagged 0.3mm BGA, component placement, Land pattern, packaging
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Missing Mars Probes
Back in ancient times when multi-legged beasts ruled the earth, there were a lot more standards. Or maybe there were just fewer total things resulting in fewer total variations, which looks like more standards. In any case, if you got … Continue reading
Posted in Screaming Circuits Blog
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Reliable Assembly
For those of you at my PCB West session on the Sept. 27, thanks for attending. Here’s the final presentation as delivered: http://screamingcircuits.typepad.com/files/pcbwest2012-duanebenson-reliablemanf.pdf Duane Benson
Via in BGA Pads
The answer to the question “Is it ever okay to put open vias in BGA pads?” is simply “no.” It’s no, no, no, no, not ever!!! That makes it easy. No technique to worry about. No tolerances. Nothing. Just don’t … Continue reading
Via in Pad X 8
Here’s an interesting via in pad case. On the one hand, the footprint is very symmetrical and clean looking. On the other hand, it has open vias in the pads. At first glance, I thought this was a DIP footprint … Continue reading
Posted in Screaming Circuits Blog
Tagged Layout, PCB design, solder mask, Via-in-pad
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Passively Annoying
Passive components can be kind of offensive sometimes. I can understand them in analog circuits or charge pumps. But the fact that we need to put them all over our digital logic is just rude. Technically, I understand why they … Continue reading
Posted in Screaming Circuits Blog
Tagged bypass capacitors, IPC, passive components, solder mask, thermals
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