Computer aided concurrent design for printed wiring boards

The design and fabrication cycle of Printed Wiring Boards (PWB) continues to expand. As designs become more complex, the possibility for first-pass correctness is reduced because the communication between engineers becomes more difficult due to the segregation of design knowledge into specific areas of expertise. The complexity of todays designs require more specialized knowledge for each phase in the product development cycle. The time now spent in the redesign cycles could be dramatically reduced if the knowledge now embedded in the support groups could be made available to the engineer up front. This paper presents an approach for reducing the time and cost required to produce a first-pass PWB design by building an integrated engineering support environment that aids the designer in simultaneously engineering both the design and fabrication stages.