Enhancements to the stackup and assembly data have the supply chain signing on to the electronics data transfer format.

Eighteen months ago, Fujitsu Networks Communications CAD engineering manager Gary Carter shipped CAD files for a 12-layer PCB in the IPC-2581A format to a major board fabricator. The fabricator responded, asking for a drawing and profile information. It’s all there, Carter said, it just has to be derived from the CAD file.

Freeware has its limitations, but for some operations it is surprisingly effective.

Larger companies typically have a signal and power integrity department that performs power integrity analysis on development projects, and which has exclusive access to signal integrity software licenses. In these cases, these tools are not available to hardware design engineers. Often, the SI team engineering resources are only available with larger delays or on only one or two occasions during a project. Small companies generally lack SI teams; instead, hardware design engineers perform SI/PI analysis. Many small companies cannot afford to purchase SI/PI simulation software. So, were a hardware design engineer to need some quick simulation or need to experiment, they often simply have to give up getting any accurate SI/PI insight into their designs.