PCB design review and expert report
A layout has been created in-house or by a service provider, and you want it checked before release. MHD provides an independent design review: the verdict of a certified designer, documented to a depth that satisfies purchasing, quality assurance and audit.
Independent design review for electronics from your own house
A review examines what was built elsewhere. There are various reasons for one. The layout comes from your own development team and needs a second opinion before production release. A service provider has delivered, and purchasing needs a basis for acceptance. Or an audit is coming up, and the assessment of the design should come from outside.
The review sits outside the MHD process from component library to manufacturing data. It is a small assignment with a clear scope. Acting on the findings remains with your team or your service provider; MHD delivers the assessment.
Scope of the PCB design review
The review checks the points where EMC, signal quality and manufacturability are decided. Crossing bus lines, split reference planes, an unevenly connected power supply or inhomogeneous differential pairs are hard for software to detect. The review looks for such spots before they show up in the EMC lab or in series production.
- EMC and signal integrity: reference planes and return current paths, impedance and length matching, routing of filter stages and power supply. The basis is the EMC training at the VDI (Association of German Engineers) and the ZED seminar on EMC assembly design (ZED: Zertifizierter Elektronik-Designer, the FED's certified electronics designer programme).
- Manufacturability (DFM, DFA, DFT): pads and masks matched to the assembly technology, thermal reliefs on copper pours, fiducials and test points, plus layer assignment and layer order in the manufacturing data.
- Standards: clearance and creepage distances to IEC 60664, requirements from IEC 60601 and IEC 62368, EMC limits. Every affected standard appears in the expert report with its design consequence.
The PCB expert report
Every finding appears in the expert report with its reasoning. Purchasing, quality assurance and auditors can follow the assessment, and months later the reasoning behind every rating is still on record. Where a standard is decisive, it is named together with its design consequence.
Assessment and verdict rest with Dr Häuser. The basis is CID+, ZED IV and the EMC training at the VDI, plus experience from series production at an EMS provider and from scientific instrumentation. The MHD data security concept applies to file exchange: a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before handover where needed, local storage only, OpenPGP-encrypted email on request.
The outcome
The outcome is an expert report with which you can release the design, have it revised or justify an acceptance.
- Written expert report on your design, documented for purchasing, quality assurance and audit
- Findings with reasoning, still on record months later
- References to standards with their design consequences, wherever regulatory requirements are affected
- The verdict: recommendation to release or to revise
Design review and expert report at MHD
The questions that come up most often in initial consultations about this service.
What documents do you need to review our layout?
Schematic and layout data, ideally as an Altium project. MHD converts legacy data from other E-CAD systems. If only Gerber data is available, the initial consultation clarifies what can be assessed from it. Processor software and ASIC internals stay with you.
Do you also review layouts created by another service provider?
Yes. The review assesses a design that was created elsewhere and gives you a documented basis for acceptance or rework.
Who carries out the PCB design review?
Dr Marco Häuser, certified as CID+ and ZED IV, EMC Designer (VDI) after certified training. Assessment and verdict rest with him.
Is the review suitable as a DFM review before manufacturing release?
Yes. Manufacturability, assemblability and testability are part of the scope, as is the manufacturing data. The technology specifications of your PCB fabricator and assembly house are taken into account.
What does a PCB expert report cost?
That depends on layer count, component density and the desired scope. Describe the assembly, the reason and the deadline in your project enquiry, and you receive an initial assessment of scope and cost.
A verdict on your layout before series production starts.
For the project enquiry, the assembly, the reason and the deadline are enough. You receive an initial assessment of scope and depth of review.