How to design manufacturable, testable, and scalable electronics

Some simple things you can do to ensure manufacturability, testability, and scalability are:

✨For god’s sake, put a keepout please and thank you! Have you ever forgotten to put a keepout and your PCB failed for “no reason”? Yeah, that’s because your VCC and GND planes may have shorted out on each other while being cut at the manufacturing house! 🙀🙀🙀 it takes seconds, I suggest 1mm all around the PCB if you have the space.

✨Make sure your PCB is testable - Test Points (TPs) everywhere 🪄🧚 Think about how you will do tests like your function tests (FCT) for each separate function of your PCB. It may not always be a TP issue, for example, you can test your LEDs using an FCT PCB with ambient light sensors on them 💡

✨Make sure your vias, smallest footprints, and thinnest tracks are manufacturable by your manufacturer! 🤏🏽

✨Always check there’s a healthy stock of your main components before designing and save yourself from having to start from square one again. Trust me, I’ve learnt the hard way 😩

✨Think about how you will do your life testing 🧐 Got a battery on board? How many times can you run your product until the battery reaches a point that you define as unacceptable? 🪫 How many times can a your button be pushed until it can no longer be defined as functional? ⏯️

✨For impedance controlled tracks, follow your manufacturer’s stack up 📚

✨ If you care about your product long term-reliability, bite the bullet and go for Gold ENIG ⚱️ Seriously though, this isn’t always a priority, not all products need to have long-term reliability. I said what I said 🤷🏽‍♀️

✨ Design with EMC in mind, from day ONE 📡 don’t leave it till the end! 💯💯💯

What else should I mention? Track angles, fiducials, manufacturing files, IPC standards, RoHS, REACH? Much much more..Let me know in the comments! 👇🏽