The PCB design process involves several important steps, including component placement, soldering, and ECAD-MCAD integration.
During component placement, electronic components are precisely positioned on printed circuit boards to establish electrical connections between functional components and the interconnecting circuitry in the PCBs. Solder paste is then applied to the PCB pads, and the components are installed and soldered using techniques such as wave soldering, reflow soldering, or selective soldering.
Wave soldering involves passing the PCB over a pumped wave or cascade of hot solder, while reflow soldering uses a solder paste to join parts to contact pads and melts the solder by heating the entire assembly under an infrared lamp or reflow oven. Selective soldering, also known as mini-wave soldering, provides an affordable and repeatable method for soldering through-hole (THT) and mixed technology components.
ECAD (Electronic Computer-Aided Design) software is used to design the PCB layout from a schematic of the circuit design, create a virtual representation of the PCB with 3D models, and produce 2D circuit board manufacturing documentation. MCAD (Mechanical Computer-Aided Design) software, on the other hand, is used to create physical structures such as mechanical parts, device enclosures, and mounting components, and produce 2D manufacturing documentation.
To achieve integration between ECAD and MCAD, Altium Designer’s suite of collaboration and integration solutions can be used. Altium 365 platform allows for easy collaboration and sharing of projects after the design is complete and ready for release to manufacturing.