This technology has actually been available in one form or another for a couple of decades. However, advances in the past few years carry some significant implications. Most excitement revolves around the ability to mass produce mechanical parts using this method. For instance, the inherent advantages of additive manufacturing allow engineers to design components with internal voids without concerns for machining or tooling design. Walls can feature lattices of varying density. The next frontier of this technology is controlling the variation of material properties along the length of a part or any other spatial dimension. When these implications become realized, the buzz will be warranted.

How does this relate to electrical and electronic systems design?

The Foundation: Enabling Signals

The core innovation that allows the application of 3D printing to electrical and electronic systems design is the ability to print conductive and non-conductive materials side by side, meaning you can have a single layer where a non-conductive material like plastic surrounds a material that carries a signal—like a metal. This mirrors what happens with a trace in a board or a wire in a sheath. Much like a circuit board, the printer can lay down successive layers with different layouts. With 3D printing, you are able to do more than just laying down these traces in a single plane. A trace can go in a direction, come up vertically at an angle to avoid another trace, and continue in another direction.

With this foundation in place, a world of possibilities opens up to apply 3D printing to electrical and electronic systems design.

3D Printing and Electronic Systems Design

Let’s say that you can use 3D printing to make a circuit board. What’s the big deal? Well, there is a range of interesting possibilities.

• The shape of the board could be 3D printed, meaning it would no longer have to be flat. It could be cone-shaped, composed of spirals, and more. Given the space constraints of today’s board systems, this kind of flexibility could be a boon.
• The board and enclosure would consolidate into one part, and they literally could be printed as a single component. This carries some very interesting potential in terms of structural loading and vibration. You could design the single board-enclosure component to avoid certain excitation frequencies.
• Walls of the board, enclosure, or the consolidated board-enclosure could contain latticing. This has a lot of implications for thermal management. Need a new source of airflow? Add in a latticed section to the base, side, or top surfaces.

3D printing applied to electronic systems design means more flexibility. The technology isn’t mature enough for all of these uses yet, but it is on the horizon. Given how constrained board systems have become, many will be pushing firmly towards that future.

3D Printing and Electrical Systems Design

It is fairly straightforward to see how 3D printing applies to electronic systems design, but how does it apply to electrical systems design? The idea is simple: print wires into the structural components of the parts instead of routing them. Instead of running a wire around the internal cavity of a product, you can now PRINT the wire into the external structural parts of the product. Thus, essentially, the internal wires of products go away. What are the implications here?

• • You can print sensors and their wire connections within structural components. Want to measure strain or temperature in the product? Embed a sensor in a wall with printed wiring.
  • You can potentially reduce the weight of products by removing wiring. Embedding it in the structural components or walls of the product, would not eliminate it entirely but would certainly consolidate it.
  • Embedding sensors, antennas, and wiring into walls promise to free up space within the internal product cavity. Space-constrained products could realize a significant boon.

All of this assumes that you can 3D print the structural components of the product. Again, the technology is not there quite yet, but engineers are prototyping this technology today. Given the benefits, many companies will be pushing to make this reality sooner than later.

The Takeaway

Additive manufacturing for mechanical components has a ton of buzz right now. Given the benefits, that buzz is warranted. Expect to see some significant progress in the next six months to a year. Many manufacturers of 3D printing equipment are racing to get to production capabilities.
Watch that trend. Pay attention to it. However, don’t sleep on 3D printing for electronic and electrical systems design. Many startups are seriously exploring how to make this real right now. Think about the implications for your design. Think about how your company could realize benefits.
Why?

Because before you know it, this technology will be ready.

The post 3D Printing for Electronic and Electrical Systems appeared first on English.

Of course, we’ve already made lots of movies: Corporate ones; event-based videos (that were often too shaky to use); and lots and lots of technical how-to movies. But we hadn’t produced any movies with customers before and, with an upcoming new website featuring a more personal approach, we wanted to capture what it was like to actually work with Zuken. Not just what our software is like – but the whole experience of working with the Zuken team from first approach to several years in.

Renishaw, a global company with core skills in measurement, motion control, spectroscopy and precision machining, kindly offered to be first off the blocks. So, with some preparation under our belt, and flanked by an experienced video production team in Videotrack, we headed to Renishaw HQ in Wotton-under-Edge, UK, ready to learn.

You can see for yourselves how much fun we had in this blooper and outtake reel

Getting down to business, there are a choice of approaches depending on your interests.

For managers and those interested in business relationships

Hear about the part Zuken tools play in Renishaw’s business strategy and why they decided on Zuken’s electrical and electronic tools, from Pete Leonard, Electronic Design Manager (below).

If you’re a Design Manager, PCB or Electrical Design Engineer

You can get an insight into Zuken’s solutions from the perspective of Renishaw’s senior technical experts and users, Andrew Blackmore, Technical Fellow; and Kevin Rowe, Principal Electronics Engineer; as well as thoughts from Pete Leonard, Electronic Design Manager (below).

For Manufacturing Engineers, Production Managers, or anyone with an eye on the bottom line

Find out how Renishaw get their products out to their customers using Zuken tools. This Design for Manufacturing (DfM) movie features Mike Prideaux, Electronics Assembly & Test Engineering Manager; along with Andrew Blackmore, Technical Fellow; and Pete Leonard, Electronic Design Manager (below).

Further information

Success Story – Renishaw gets better fit and impedance control for complex flexible PCBs in metrology instruments using CR-8000

The post Making Movies with Customers: Why Renishaw choose Zuken, Plus Awesome Movie Bloopers appeared first on English.

I gave myself an action item to do a little research on the design requirements and the manufacturability of the concept. Apparently, we are approaching a decade since the first experiments with stretchable materials began at M.I.T., The University of Michigan and other esteemed institutions. We’ve come a long way in the last decade.

Currently there are PCB manufacturers supporting “stretch-rigid” and “stretch-flex” technologies. While at the PCB West 2018 conference in Santa Clara, CA, I had the chance to visit with one. Greg Vouga, who is the director of sales at Würth Electronics was kind enough to share some information with me and provide some samples of finished circuits.

You may wonder how these technologies might be used. You may initially think about wearable electronics like watches and fitness trackers. But mainly, this technology is targeted at medical applications. Some time ago I participated in a sleep apnea study and it involved being wired up with electrical sensors around my head and face. With the newest stretch-flex technology the 30-minute prep time to connect all the various sensors and wires could be eliminated by using a fitted cap that the patient can easily slip on and off. At the same time, the wearable technology makes it easier for the patient to be mobile during the study. That’s only one example, and the possibilities are growing.

The design process for stretchable circuitry requires similar design considerations for manufacture (DFM) checks as with typical rigid-flex designs such as arcs, curved traces, reinforced pads, etc. The manufacturing difference is in the materials where a polyurethane or silicone film is used to encase the stretchable/retractable wire patterns and components as opposed to polyimide Kapton non-stretchable materials. The stretch in the finished circuit is obtained by routing the copper traces using repetitive horseshoe-shaped meanders, as shown in the image below.

The mechanical limitation of the percentage of stretch over {x} amount of cycles or stretches is still a mystery that engineers will solve over time. For example, 10% stretch could be achieved over 100,000 cycles or 70% of stretch may occur over 100 cycles, just like a rubber band.

Copper weights of 0.5 oz and wire widths of 0.1mm are typical though the wires in the image above were smaller. Some cases resulted in a completed circuit only 0.015mm. The spacing in between the wires in the stretch region is sealed to prevent contact during manipulation of the article.

Getting back to the original question, “Can CR-8000 Design Force support stretchable flex designs?” The answer is of course, yes. However, the layout of the design is only part of the challenge; defining the DFM rules and checks is the other part. Zuken’s DFM/ADM (advanced design for manufacturing) rules makes it possible to check for the basics of rigid and flex design ensuring design accuracy throughout the process. As these new technologies continue to evolve with even more applications, DFM rules and checks will also evolve to support them.

Live Webinar: What is a Stretch-Rigid Circuit and How Do You Design it?

October 10, 2018 – 2:00 PM ET

Sign up for our webinar* to learn more about designing stretchable circuits and this evolving technology.

*Due to GDPR limitations, this live webinar is not available outside of North America. Please visit our web page for an on-demand recording after the live broadcast date. 

The post Flex Circuits Stretch the Limits of Technology appeared first on English.

Sierra met Steve Watt, Manager of PCB Engineering at Zuken, during PCB West 2017 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. After his presentation on how to improve flexible printed circuit manufacturing, he shared a few tips in front of our camera. Listen to him discuss CR-8000, DfM checks, and flexible PCB designing.

Here are the questions Steve was asked: 

• 0:05 Can you discuss CR-8000 and how does it handle DfM checks?
• 2:00 What should designers keep in mind when designing flexible PCBs?
• 3:23 What are the special DfM checks you recommend for flex PCBs?
• 4:34 Why do customers choose Zuken?

Sierra also interviewed Humair Mandavia, Zuken’s chief strategy officer, and Simon Fried, Nano Dimension’s CBO, who were on hand to announce their companies’ partnership. If you’re interested in 3D printing technologies, this interview is for you!

Here are the questions that Humair and Simon were asked:

• 0:05 Can you discuss Zuken and Nano Dimension’s partnership?
• 1:26 Can you explain what is Design Force?
• 1:47 What kind of PCBs can you print with Dragonfly?
• 3:10 What is the DFM Inkjet module and how does it work?
• 3:37 Are you working on other 3D printing technologies?

The post How to Improve Flexible Printed Circuit Manufacturing (PCB West Interview) appeared first on English.

What’s the Big Deal about Architecture Design?

Product complexity is driving the hardware design process evolution. And product complexity is being driven by product miniaturization, IoT, design reuse, security, complex packaging, high density packaging, etc. It’s a long list. The result is that detailed design process is converging into a system-level design abstraction and the overall process is extending upstream into model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and hardware architecture design. The increasing product complexity no longer allows us to leap from requirements to detailed design; we need to better define the system, optimize the hardware architecture and then move to detailed design.

The need for hardware architecture design and optimization stems from the risk that if you enter detailed design with an architecture flaw (e.g., board won’t route so we need to add a board or enlarge the board, board(s) won’t fit in the enclosure, the product weighs too much) you may not be able to recover. During a recent webinar, one of our polling questions uncovered that fact that 92% of the audience had experienced a PCB fit problem with their enclosure. That’s an architecture failure, not a detailed design failure. In other words, a z-axis collision between a tall component and an enclosure is a detailed design fix, but if changing the shape of the PCB or the enclosure is required to avoid collisions, that is an architecture design failure.

Planning Flow

Zuken’s System Planner performs hardware architecture design and optimization across four disciplines:  functional design, PCB planning, space planning and various parametrics that include weight, cost, power, etc. Here is a synopsis of the architecture planning flow:

1. System Planner starts with the functional block diagram and that can begin with the schematic of the current version. Most new product designs starts with the current design.
2. Add functional blocks from your library or create a block with a partial BOM as a place holder. You can add the schematic later.
3. Assign the functional blocks to different PCBs and analyze routability.
4. Move functional blocks from board to board to optimize layout and signal integrity.
5. Make sure the boards fit in the enclosure and that the parametrics (e.g., cost, weight, power, etc.) meet product requirements. You can also map requirements to functional blocks or boards for traceability.

But Wait, There’s More!

System Planner 2017 has added support for wire harnesses. So now you can design board interconnect in the form of a flex board with a wire harness. More of the discipline convergence I mentioned earlier. Once you have optimized the multi-domain design, the boards move into CR-8000 as a multi-board system. The harnesses move into E3.series for detailed design. No data re-entry required. The integration is seamless.

Hardware architecture design is becoming a competitive requirement as product complexity is on the rise and the room for error is shrinking. You may not be able to squeeze much more productivity out of your detailed design tools, but you can feed them with higher quality designs. Sound interesting? Check out this page and request a hardware architecture design and optimization demo.

The post Hardware Architecture Design Becomes the Next Competitive Requirement appeared first on English.

To achieve the most accurate results they are working with Zuken’s electronic PCB design software to visualize boards in 3D using imported MCAD data. This also ensures that sure high-speed digital signals can be transmitted with minimal distortion.

Visualising in 3D helps collaboration

Renishaw’s PCB designers visualise and manipulate board designs in 3D using CR-8000 Design Gateway and Design Force for schematic capture and PCB layout. Working in 3D the designers noticed a host of benefits:

• Fixing housing fit issues upfront
• Easier component placement
• Easier controlled impedance routing for high frequency signals using electromagnetic field solvers in Design Force.

Renishaw’s engineers also discovered an important human benefit: working in 3D helped engineers across all disciplines work together more collaboratively.

“We can place components in a 3D environment, taking into account any constraints that may have come over from our mechanical engineers, and then switch back to 2D for routing.”

– Pete Leonard, Electronic Design Manager for Group Engineering, Renishaw

Renishaw is one of the world’s leading engineering and scientific technology companies and has particular expertise in metrology equipment used, for example, to improve manufacturing processes.

• Read the full story

The post Renishaw Designs Flex PCBs in True 3D with MCAD Integration using Zuken’s CR-8000 appeared first on English.

Most wearable manufacturers have determined that the only current way to meet these often-conflicting goals is to ramp up their use of advanced packaging technologies such as Multichip Module (MCM), System in Package (SiP) and 3D-IC in order to pack integrated circuits more closely together. Flex PCBs are increasingly being used to reduce enable the use of more stylish aerodynamic shapes.

With key functionality in many cases commoditized, the success or failure of wearables is increasingly determined in the early stages of the PCB and mechanical integration process where requirements are translated into practical design decisions such as how functions are mapped to PCBs and PCBs are integrated into the enclosure. These decisions determine cost, size, weight and external appearance and other outcomes. The problem faced by designers is that today’s leading design tools largely fail to address this critical early stage of the design process and instead focus on later stages where the detailed design is defined. The failure to choose the right options in the early phases can result in expensive late-stage changes or even a product that fails in the market.

Zuken is helping engineers overcome these challenges by providing a virtual prototyping environment where the product can be configured and decisions made such as how many boards will be used and what functions will be assigned to each board. For each design alternative, the new tool helps evaluate the cost, number of PCBs, weight, size, enclosure fit and more with the ability to make tradeoffs before committing to a detailed design. There’s far too much to explain in this short blog post so we wrote this article that provides full details on the new generation of design exploration tools.

Related: Wearables & IoT to Alter Electronic Design Process

The post Growing Pains in the Wearables Market appeared first on English.