In the field of printed circuit board design, there has been a constant clamor to get designers off the imperial unit system known as the mil. The mil is 1/1000th of an inch. It has been used throughout the history of PCB design. Classic component packages like the DIP were designed using the mil for pin spacing.
Continue reading I’ll Stick with Mils. Thank You Very Much.
This article’s argument for mechanical engineering involvement in PCB design is specific to the layout. The schematics and circuit design such as power, analog, and digital belong to the electrical engineering domain and this area requires classroom and lab experience which one would expect from a degreed electrical program. It is not to say that a mechanical engineer cannot do circuit design. More so, we envision a future in which academia offers degrees in mechatronic design. Under the current circumstances, this industry is notorious for making gross assumptions about an engineer’s capabilities and we wish not to propagate the belief that a mechanical engineer can do the whole PCB design based on their degree alone unless they have been exposed to circuit design during their undergraduate career. – Paul Taubman
In a recent article published in PCB Design 007 (January 2018 – See link below), one of the few Ph. D’s in the printed circuit board industry was interviewed regarding thermal issues. In particular, he and a colleague were questioning the numbers that have been long held as definitive facts. When we have an electronic product in our hands, there is a gross assumption that the thermal issues have been well thought out. Between questionable data and lack of knowledge in thermodynamics, this may not be the case.
