Board Standards and schematic layout - KingSheng PCBA

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Local countries also have their own various standards for many aspects of PC board design,IPC standards are the accepted industry standard around the world.

There are industry standards for almost every aspect of PC board design. These standards are controlled by the former Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits, who are now known simply as the IPC . There is an IPC standard for every aspect of PC board design, manufacture, testing and anything else that you could ever need. The major document that covers PC board design is IPC-2221, "Generic Standard on Printed Board Design". This standard superseded the old IPC-D-275 standard (also Military Std 275) which has been used for the last half century.

Local countries also have their own various standards for many aspects of PC board design and manufacture but by and large, the IPC standards are the accepted industry standard around the world.

For PCB lay out ,before you even begin to lay out your PC board, you MUST have a complete and accurate schematic (circuit) diagram.

Some advanced software packages even have the ability to render a 3D image of the board design - also very handy for instruction manuals or marketing.

Many people jump straight into the PC board design with nothing more than the circuit in their head or roughly drawn with no pin numbers and without any logical order. If you don't have an accurate schematic then your PC board will most likely end up a mess and take you twice as long as it should.

"Garbage-in, garbage-out" is an often-used quote that applies equally well to PC board design. A PC board design is a manufactured version of your schematic, so it is natural for the PC board design to be influenced by the original schematic. If your schematic is neat, logical and clearly laid out, then it really does make your PC board design job a lot easier.

Good practice will have signals flowing from inputs at the left to outputs on the right. Electrically important sections should be drawn correctly, the way the designer would like them to be laid out on the PC board. Bypass capacitors should be put next to the component they are meant for.

Little notes on the schematic that aid in the layout are very useful. For instance, "this pin requires a guard track to signal ground" makes it clear to the person laying out the board what precautions must be taken.