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Why Choose CA Design?
You benefit from a CA Design team of highly specialized senior designers, trained in a variety of PCB Design Softwares. We"ve developed a wide range of boards including Large Digital Boards, Small RF boards, High Speed, Chip on Board and Micro via Designs.

By choosing CA Design, you"ll receive service from a company specializing in OrCAD layout. We use OrCAD layout as a primary tool in our daily work, which enables us to know the software inside and out.

CA Design also specializes in three other software platforms: Mentor Graphics, Cadence Allegro, and Pads PowerPCB software. Working either from your office with your hardware, or from our office, using our hardware, CA Design provides you with design databases to meet your specifications.

Your Team of Experienced Experts
CA Design employs only the best designers. All of our designers have at least 5 years in the industry, and experience on at least two software platforms. Our designers are trained in a variety of disciplines: large digital boards, small analog boards, ECL, RF, High Speed, Surface mount, Chip on board, and Micro-via designs. All designs done at the CA Design facility are sent through a rigid review process across the design flow before we send them to our customers.

Customized PCB Design Software Training
CA Design offers customized, personalized training at your facility in OrCAD Layout, OrCAD Capture, PADS Power PCB Cadence Allegro, or Mentor Graphics software. Our instructor, Bob Chandler, has been training engineers and designers in a variety of software programs for most of his career. He has a very easy training style, letting the user go at his own pace while still teaching all of the fundamentals of the program.

CA Design offers customized training in Mentor Graphics and OrCAD Software. We will come to your facility to train. We customize your training to your requirements. You can choose from extensive, comprehensive training, or concise, advanced training.

Call us today to set up your next training class: (408) 226-1329

PCB Layout & PCB Design
While every job is unique, PCB layout jobs and PCB design jobs must meet a variety of specifications required by you, the customer. CA Design employs a battle-proven process for ensuring that your PCB design meets all of the varied specifications you require. CA Design will not design your printed board in a vacuum. We work closely with the engineer, the fabrication house, and the assembly house to ensure a premium PCB design.

CA Design has developed an "Intake Document" and a "Sign-off Sheet" to ensure that nothing gets overlooked when designing your PCB layout. One of our mechanical engineers will review your "Intake Document" for mechanical concerns, as well.

By getting as much information as possible up front, CA Design can better respond to your schedule requirements for your PCB layout. It"s easier to design for test points from the start, rather than to add test points after the design is complete.

The Sign-Off Sheet is an important measurement of schedule. It also ensures that the Engineer has a chance to review each step of your PCB design before being committed to the design.

Call us today to give you a free quote on your next PCB layout or PCB design job: (408) 226-1329

You"ll receive your quote within one day.

OrCAD Training
Our specialty is OrCAD Layout. In addition, CA Design offers personalized training in OrCAD Capture. Our designers use the OrCAD software every day. We don"t just train using "canned" demos and "setup" problems. We teach the user how to use the software the way in day-to-day, real-world situations-the way it really works, not the way it "should" work.

During our Capture class, we walk the user through the Capture Program, creating parts and libraries, as well as an actual schematic.

We recommend that all of our students have completed the OrCAD Tutorial that comes with OrCAD capture and layout before the class. This allows us to get right into the ways to avoid traps and problems, without having to spend a lot of time on the very basics of OrCAD.

OrCAD Capture is usually a one-day seminar. We train at the users speed. If there is something that the user is having trouble with, we work hard to explain it in such a way that the user understands the process behind what they are doing and not just the buttons to push. At the completion of the class, the newly-trained OrCAD user will be able to develop usable OrCAD schematics.

Our OrCAD layout class is very similar. We have no canned layouts to work over, but rather we work on the users boards. We show the design engineers how to solve the problems with the boards that they will have. We go over all of the features in OrCAD Layout, and help the user to decide how to best build their board. We discuss libraries, and how to back-annotate to the schematic. Standard board set- up is also discussed.

After the OrCAD layout class, the user will be able to build any part they might need and place, route, and document any board they require. We welcome and encourage our students to call us with questions or problems they may have after their OrCAD course is over. Most OrCAD questions can easily be answered over the phone. The OrCAD layout class comes in 3-day training or 5 days training, depending on the scope and the number of participants.

Call us today for more information about OrCad training:
(408) 226-1329
E-mail: carolle@cadesign.net

PADS Power PCB Training
CA Design provides PADS training on-site. A PADS training team can come to your facility for one day, two days, three days, or even an entire week to help you understand PADS. We can take you through the PADS tutorial, teaching you the PADS short-cuts and helpful PADS hints as we go. We can show you, from a real users point of view, how to set up your designs, your libraries, and your process. Bob will use your own work to illustrate the OrCAD process.

When you have finished the PADS training, you can feel free to call Bob, or any of the other designers at CA Design and ask them any questions you have about PADS. Most of our designers can walk you through a trouble spot on the phone. If not, you can e-mail us your design or library part, and we can look it over and let you know how to solve your problem.

Cadence Allegro Training
CA Design can come to your facility for one day, two days, three days, or even an entire week to help you understand Cadence Allegro. We can take you through the entire Cadence Allegro process, teaching you the shortcuts and helpful hints as we go. We can show you, from a real user"s point of view, how to set up your designs, your libraries, and your process. CA Design owner, Bob Chandler, will use your own work to illustrate the Cadence Allegro process.

When you have finished the Cadence Allegro training, you can feel free to call Bob, or any of the other designers at CA Design and ask them any questions you have about Cadence Allegro. Most of our designers can walk you through a trouble spot on the phone. If not, we can arrange a one-day visit to help you solve your problems.

Call us today for more information about Cadence Allegro training:
Phone : (408) 226-1329
E-mail: carolle@cadesign.net

Mentor Graphics Training
CA Design will train you in Mentor Graphics. PCB design problems are conquered with solutions from Mentor Graphics. PCB design solutions are the industry standard. We"ll equip you with the skills you need to enhance your electronic design productivity. Our designers have 5 years or more experience with Mentor Graphics. CA Design owner, Bob Chandler, has more than 20 years experience and is skilled in four different PCB design softwares, including Mentor Graphics.

Call us today for more information about Mentor Graphics Training:
Phone : (408) 226-1329
E-mail: carolle@cadesign.net

Specctra Autorouter
CA Design provides training on using specctra Autorouter. We"ll come to your facility for one day or an entire week to help you understand specctra Autorouter. We can take you through the entire specctra Autorouter process, teaching you the shortcuts and helpful hints as we go. We can show you, from a real user"s point of view, how to set up your designs, your libraries, and your process. CA Design owner, Bob Chandler, will u se your own work to illustrate the specctra Autorouter process.

When you have finished specctra Autorouter training, feel free to call Bob, or any of our other designers at CA Design and ask them any questions you have about specctra Autorouter. Most of our designers can walk you through a trouble spot on the phone. If not, we can arrange a one-day visit to help you solve your problems.

Call us today for more information about specctra Autorouter Training:
Phone : (408) 226-1329

ABOUT CA DESIGN

CA Design specializes in four software platforms: OrCAD, Mentor Graphics, Cadence Allegro, and PowerPCB software. Working either from your office - your hardware, or from our office - our hardware, CA Design provides you with design databases to meet your specifications.

CA Design brings a unique perspective to the customer/service bureau relationship. Bob Chandler has worked on both sides of the fence, and understands the value of a good service bureau. Working as Manager of Contracted Services for TRW Sunnyvale, Bob developed a working model for controlling and integrating Design Service companies into the TRW design process. This process has been copied and implemented at several leading companies in the industry.

Bob received his Masters Degree in Operations Management from San Jose University in 1996 after completing his Masters Thesis on Printed Circuit Design Service Centers. CA Design is structured to comprehensively encompass the entire design and manufacturing process. We work with you to ensure a design that meets all of your requirements, including documentation, production, assembly and test.

CA Design employs only the best designers. We have no junior designers on staff. All of our designers have at least 5 years in the industry, and experience on at least two software platforms. Our designers are trained in a variety of disciplines. We can do large digital boards, small analog boards, ECL, RF, High Speed, Surface mount, Chip on board, and Micro-via designs. All designs done at the CA Design facility are sent through a rigid review process across the design flow before coming back to you, the customer.

CA Design also offers training in Mentor Graphics and OrCAD Software. We will come to your facility to train and will customize training to your requirements. You can choose from extensive, comprehensive training, or concise, advanced training.

Getting the Most out of your PCB Design Service Bureau

by Bob Chandler, May 2004

In today’s design economy, the large internal PCB layout department is getting rare.

Engineers are being driven whether they like it or not, to use outside services. To avoid the more costly disasters, you need to understand the dynamics of remote layout. We will discuss 7 aspects of contract design:

1.) Service Bureau
2.) Communication
3.) Design Review Process
4.) Quality Control
5.) Schedules
6.) Budgets
7.) Change Control

1.) Service Bureau Spectrum – All layout companies can be plotted somewhere along the service bureau spectrum. On the far end of the spectrum is the “auto route” service company. This company will take your spectra file and process it through the auto router. You get the results, complete or not. At the other end of the spectrum is the project management and engineering house. This company can take your concepts and do all of the engineering, part selection, layout, prototype, testing, and production. This company will take most of your worries away, but you will also lose control of the product.

Most companies are located somewhere between the extremes, you will need to understand what your needs are, then select the company that best serves your needs.

If you company has a large, in-house engineering department with a complete support staff, you may only need occasional routing support or you might send out the boards for minor changes and "product life” support.

Relying upon a service bureau for all of your layout needs is not a bad thing. Smaller companies and even larger ones send out most if not all of their layouts. When you are making this much of an intellectual product investment in a company. You want to be sure to select the right company.

2.) Communication

Designer/Engineer Communications
Layout Guidelines and Technical Issues

Customer and Vendor Communications Documentation Practices
File structure

Business Communications
Budgets
Schedules
Deliverables

In house Design Group

3.) Design Review Process – Each company whether they mean to or not, develops a process to review the boards. Some companies are more formal with the process that others. However, it is done, there are always three major areas for review.

a.) Placement Review – once all of the library footprints have been identified and built, and parts have been placed on the board, the most important of all reviews takes place.

During the placement review, you will need to verify 3 items:

library footprints
electrical constraints requirements and
the manufacturability of the board, or dfm review.

The review of the library footprints is very important. Be sure that the connector pin numbers are correct. That the soft-23 packages are pinned properly, that the diodes are not backwards. The electrical constraints review looks for things such as analog ground pins within the digital ground areas. If the buss needs to be daisy chained, is it in a logical order? Are the decoupling caps close to the power pins?

The DFM Review takes into account the mechanical interface requirements and the manufacturing processes, required to build the board. Included in the mechanical interface are connector locations, mounting holes, and height requirements. The DFM Review will be different, depending upon the total number of boards to be built, and the technology to be used.

Once the placement review is complete, and all interested parties have had a chance to comment on the board, it is then time to start routing. Please do not be afraid to let every department that has a concern look at the placement. It is much cheaper and faster to make changes here than it is to change the board after it has been fabbed.

b.) Routing Review – is normally broken into 3 reviews:

Critical route review
Power/Ground Review
Full Route Review

These reviews do not need to be done in any particular order, and they will change depending upon the electrical requirements of the board. The important thing to get clear at the start is: How much review and when, will be required? If you are expecting to see and approve all of the clocks and the different pairs before general routing, but the vendor is planning to do one complete auto-router pass, then both will be unhappy.

When reviewing the power and grounds, keep in mind the source of the voltages. Are there enough pins or vias to handle the current?

The final review takes place after the routing is complete. Documentation items such as notes, drawing numbers, revision markings, silkscreen and assembly clean up are addressed here. It is often helpful to have a preliminary documentation review while the route is in process. This will save time and frustration at the end, when you are rushing to get the board out.

Once the board has been through fabrication, assembly and test, it is a great idea to get back with the vendor and discuss what went well and what didn’t go so well.

4.)Quality Control - Everyone knows what a good quality design looks like. Everyone knows what the best industry practices are. In short, every one knows what QUALITY is. The only problem is that quality, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Every design service company wants to deliver quality. Every design service company wants to do a good job, but this is not always possible if you have not shared with the vendor what quality is for you.

Not all companies have written documentation standards. Some companies have very exacting requirements for drawings, notes, file names, formats, and styles. Other Companies have no standards at all. At either end of the spectrum that you find your company, you can do a few things to insure the quality you get from your vendor is the quality you expect.

First, tell the vendor what quality is to you. Sample drawings are great for showing the vendor what your formats, notes and drawings look like. This does not need to be anything extravagant. If your Company has ever done a board before, can you get a print of the documents? Even better if you can get a copy of the database, this will tell the vendor how to structure the new database to match your standards.

DFM - or design for manufacturing manuals can be very helpful for a service company. Most large companies and some smaller ones have these. If your company does, getting a copy of it to your vendor will make your project run much smoother.

Also, most contract manufacturers have their own standards, and are eager to get involved early in the design process to make production easier.

Another thing you can do to improve quality from your vendor is to obtain regular updates from the vendor. Getting daily prints of copies of the database lets you see what they are doing early, and gives you a great opportunity to correct it before it becomes a problem.

The last thing I want to mention about quality is the most important- FEEDBACK.

Don’t be afraid to give positive and negative feedback to your vendor. They want to do a good job so that they can get more work from you. It does not help them or you to simply crumble about the poor quality you got from your vendor. Be pro- active and let them know what went well, and where they could improve.

5.)Schedules - It is a well established fact that every project is, by definition, behind schedule. By the time the board makes it into layout, it is late. That said, there are three items that you will want to observe in regards to schedules:

Schedule slips
Honest Communication
Progress

Before you can have a schedule slip, you need to have a schedule, when you transfer the data across to your vendor, be specific about your schedule. When will the library parts be complete?

When will the placement be done?

Critical routes and complete routes are expected when?

One of the biggest mistakes a client makes is to assume that the vendor understands the schedule requirements. The vendor has incentive to get it done quickly, in order to get paid. This does not ensure that it will relieve the priority and resources you expect. You need to be sure that you have to pre-set schedules and milestones with which to monitor the progress. That way, you can see schedules slips before they become a problem. If you were supposed to have a completed placement to you on Tuesday, and it is now Friday, you might have a schedule problem.

Which brings us to the next topic - Honest Communication vis a vis schedule slips.

Do not use a PCB Design Service Bureau who continually missed deadlines that they have promised. Some PCB Design Service Companies will tell you that they can meet and un-realistic deadline, knowing that once you commit to the design, they will complete it at their own pace, because they know that you will not pull the project after the deadline has passed.

PCB Design Service Bureaus who may have a little higher in price, but who meet the schedules, can be cheaper in the long run.
Not all schedule slips are the fault of the vendor either. If you are on your own ninth net list in four days, maybe you are the cause of the schedule slip, do not be too quick to blame the vendor. Blame does not help anybody and should only be used when deciding to use the vendor again or not. The most important thing about a schedule slip is “what do we do about it?” By finding the problem early, more recourse can be brought to be on the problem.

Another item: Be REALISTIC about your schedule and the costs if they are missed.

I worked with one company who had a board that “had to be out of July 1, or it would be big trouble for the Company!” We worked three shifts to get the board ready for fabrication. It went to the client for final review on June 28. July 1 came and went. July 10 came and client was still reviewing, and would get back to us. August, September, minor changes…. November, December, the board finally went to fabrication. In mid January. Where was the big trouble? How likely is that we will work with two shifts, let alone there for this client again? If you are not honest with the PCB Design Service Company, you can not expect miracles from them when you really do need it.

The last item dealing with schedules is progress. How are they doing? If you do not watch how it is going, you do not know when they are in trouble. It does not take much to get a daily status report. It may be a complete database for review, or just a few lines in an e-mail, explaining what is happening. You should never be surprised by a missed schedule. It is simply too easy to pick up the phone, or shoot off an e-mail to get a status.

6.)Budgets

7.)Change Control