How to Panelize Your PCB Design with EMS Expert Kelly Dack

The Ontrack Podcast welcomes Kelly Dack, PCB Designer and Manufacturing Liaison at Keytronic Electrical and Electronic Manufacturing out of Spokane Valley, Washington. Kelly is a veteran PCB designer with the unusual distinction of having worked alongside both PCB fabricators and assemblers. Kelly shares his insider perspectives on copper pullback and panelization, dimensioning and tolerances, and more.  

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Show Highlights

• Designer disconnects: the differences between what designers are laying out in their CAD tool and what then happens during fab and assembly.
• What is a PCB Outline? Kelly breaks out an assembly array while defining his terms.
• “Just don’t do it!”—a quick tip for designers about breaking boards by hand, which puts torque or stress on components on the board.
• Kelly provides an in-depth discussion of ‘copper pullback’, relative to IPC-2221 and  IPC-2222.
• Jumping into the topic of ‘Inspection, Dimensioning, and Tolerances’, Kelly and Judy discuss the intricacies of IPC-2615.
• Reasons you should choose through-holes as your board’s point of origin.
• Designing for the widest tolerance range is a really good thing for designers to consider. Kelly does a quick dive into the subject of tolerancing, holes and the utility of remembering that holes are simply board edges.
• Routing vs. V-scoring: picking the appropriate tooling for your tolerances, volume, and your budget.
• Kelly goes full “Prairie Home Companion”, breaks out his acoustic guitar, and sings in a pitch only PCB Designers can hear—metaphorically speaking, of course. Don’t miss this rare treat!

Resources:

Kelly Dack’s Slides
Kelly Dack on Linkedin
IPC-2221
IPC-2222
Altium IPC APEX Expo Recap Video
Podcast with Kelly Dack: What is PCB Design
Eptac, IPC CID and CID+ PCB Designer Certification classes

 

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