The short answer is that product realization is a term used in ISO 9001:2008, referring to the basic design and realization of a product provided to customers, measurable by quality control. The long answer is ISO9001:2008 product realization provides clear, certifiable standards for the process of bringing a product to market. Product realization means a clear idea of what the product will be, usually expressed in drawings, statements of work, functional product specs, or their equivalents.  Based on this clear idea, quality management can objectively determine if the product was "realized" and how efficient the process was.

Embedded Microstrip

Strictly speaking, the application of soldermask, conformal coating or other surface treatments will change a pure surface microstrip line to an ‘embedded or coated microstrip’ line. This, however, is not what is traditionally referred to as embedded microstrip line, and the determination of actual characteristic impedance is more difficult with these because of the inconsistency of dielectric constant and thickness of the material above the trace.

Microstrip is still by far the most commonly used transmission line structure in RF and microwave designs. This is becoming less the case though, as digital and mixed technology designs continue to increase in speed and density.

Typically, all connections in a digital circuit board are impedance controlled. This is by virtue of the fact that most layout designers will define, for example, 50 ohms as the default routing model for single ended connections.

Transmission Line Fundamentals

Over the last ten to twenty years, advances in IC fabrication technology have led to huge increases in both the operating frequencies and edge rates of switching signals in digital circuits. This has really pushed digital circuit design into the frequency domains that were previously considered RF and/or microwave. As a result, it has become important to consider the transmission line parameters of the connecting traces used for digital signals in circuit boards as much as they have always been considered for RF connections. 

Today’s complex PCBs are being packed with a boatload of tiny components and are designed to run at ever-increasing speeds. So it certainly comes as no surprise to hear that silkscreen legends are fairly low on the designer’s priorities for consideration. However, the silkscreen’s function—that of aiding the manufacturer and engineer to locate components on the board—remains important.

Designers must be aware that the customer-supplied board outline shape isn’t always necessarily the shape that is to be delivered to the fabrication and assembly house for manufacturing. PCB’s must have two parallel sides (preferably the two longest sides) for processing them through the assembly equipment (conveyor transport).

In order to have a clean route, occasionally the designer may have to swap pins or gates on some devices. Usually the devices that require pin or gate swaps include resistor networks, capacitor networks, gated ICs (such as buffers), inverters, analog gates, and occasionally FPGAs.

Optimum Design Associates Senior Designer Scott Nance presents a 45 minute seminar on PCB design best practices for Switching Power Supplies. Originally presented at PCB West 2013, Scott's seminar has been viewed thousands of times.

Unless you are in an industry in which Printed Circuit Boards (PCB's) are used on a regular basis, you might not know exactly what they are. A PCB is an independent module of electronic interconnects. The green boards you see inside your electroncis are PCB's. Their function is to provide the electical connections between the electronic components mounted on them. PCB's are found in everyday devices such as TVs and more advanced things like radar systems. In this blog, we will cover the basice types of construction used for PCBs.