Electronic Design Trends – Open Source PCB Design

One of the major trends in electronic design is the use of open source hardware and its accompanying open source schematics and PCB layouts.

• Using open source hardware and its accompanying resources means that engineers can easily use existing designs, thereby improving efficiency and reducing time to market. As engineers gain a deeper understanding of the differences between traditional PCB and open source PCB design, this trend is likely to grow further.

• Open source PCB design has several advantages over traditional PCB design, including the repeatability of power and digital sections as well as high-speed data sections, which makes engineers more inclined to open source PCB design.

• In the past, engineers have always faced the problem of power layout, but in open source design, boards have become faster and configured with RF architectures, which makes power layout more complex and engineers must pay closer attention to board line width, line spacing and vias. In an open source PCB design environment, any layout that has proven to be effective can be copied and used without having to redesign from scratch.

Growth Trend

• When designing higher-speed board layouts (or layouts with similar performance), many engineers are generally accustomed to referring to application notes or seeking help from manufacturers, or even using PDF versions of the board to measure the wiring to scale on paper. Therefore, when faced with application designs involving diverse and complex layouts, engineers prefer open source PCBs.

• Open source design is easy to use, and engineers do not need to become “layout experts” to complete all module designs in the PCB design process. Especially when encountering special problems, engineers will obviously feel no layout pressure.

• For example: For the power module that is more difficult in traditional PCB design, if the existing open source design solution is used, its layout will become simpler. Complex PCB design layouts such as power supply, high-speed interface and line, and even impedance matching line layout can be reused or copied simply and quickly through open source.

Challenges and advantages

The integration of open source design faces several challenges, such as more noise problems. When the circuit board uses high-current switches, noise will scatter to other lines. But the biggest and most important challenge facing open source design may be the change in the learning curve. For a simple example, although engineers can easily copy and paste open source layouts, they may also lose the opportunity to learn the basics of complete design, including setting spacing, necessary line width, impedance matching, etc.

This puts engineers in a dilemma: if they don’t use open source design, they will encounter certain component design challenges during the design process, and if they use open source design, they may not be able to learn in-depth design knowledge. If engineers don’t understand the basic principles of design, they will have difficulty dealing with unique design challenges in the future.

On the other hand, using open source design can provide engineers with a new perspective on the PCB design process.

In other words, if the approach is correct, the learning barrier caused by using open source design can be transformed into a real learning opportunity.

Using open source design can provide engineers with a starting point for learning design. If engineers use open source layouts as a reference point, they can learn PCB design knowledge in depth. From this reference point, engineers can think backwards to better understand why certain layouts are arranged in a certain way, which creates a new way for engineers to learn from existing designs that traditional PCB design models cannot provide.

Going back to the power supply design mentioned earlier, if engineers use open source layouts during the design process, they can reverse analyze the design process from the results based on the specific components, line spacing, and copper wire quantity used in the power supply design, which provides engineers with an excellent opportunity to learn design basics from practice, including thermal management, impedance matching, power supply layout, etc.

Some Tips

Engineers must be careful when deciding whether to use open source designs, as not all open source designs are truly “proven.” For example, an engineer may not fully consider whether an open source layout will work with other engineers’ design layouts when creating an open source layout. For example, if an engineer does not fully understand the differences between design solutions in an open source design, the design may fail. Simply put, sometimes we don’t know where the open source layout we use comes from, so it is difficult to predict its reliability.

Take the design of a power module based on an open source layout.

At first, the engineer may think that the board works well and integrate it into the design. But when it comes to the testing phase, it may be discovered that the initial design was not fully tested to meet specific specifications or requirements, such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) caused by radiation or conduction.

Fortunately, engineers who are designing with open source layouts for the first time can refer to the following precautions. PCB layouts from semiconductor suppliers are likely to be more robust and reliable than layouts from online bulletins, websites or forums. Just as engineers in the element14 open source discussion group like to gather on the element14 platform to discuss, other PCB design engineers in the same industry use the forum as one of the channels to discuss the success and failure of specific open source layout applications. As PCB design gradually shifts to an open source model, we must clearly understand the challenges, advantages, and unique learning opportunities brought by open source PCB design, which will not only benefit engineers and manufacturers, but will also strongly promote the development of the entire PCB industry.