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This article originates from Sunrise Big data and is compiled by ChipSourceTek. The information has not been officially confirmed and is only for exchange and learning.

Time:2023-06-24 Views:894
    On some forums, I often see many people who, like everyone else, are engaged in PCB work, or have worked in this job before. They complain about the lack of prospects, and even jokingly call PCB engineers just pulling strings. Hehe, it‘s a humorous metaphor; But as a PCB engineer who has also had discussions before, I have to remind newcomers who are about to enter this industry not to misunderstand and accept such views.
    Firstly, every profession produces a champion, not to mention engineers in the electronics industry. If you have the ability, you can still only work as a PCB and receive a salary of over 1W. Why? Of course, you need to be very excellent, and being a very excellent PCB engineer is not that easy. You need to learn a lot of things, such as EMC, ESD,... It‘s not as simple as imagining that just learning to operate one or two software can connect wires.
    Secondly, the PCB part is equally crucial and important in the electronics industry as principle design. If you are interested, you can also learn design theory from engineers who design schematic diagrams. Of course, this requires your own efforts. Our company had a PCB engineer who often communicated and studied with schematic design engineers, or hardware engineers, but later switched to design one year later;
    Once again, as much as you learn, you will definitely receive as much value as you should, and this is definitely not wrong; Relatively speaking, some small companies, due to the low quality requirements of their products, only require PCB engineers at the level of deployment. Therefore, the requirements for PCB engineers are inevitably not high. Therefore, they naturally believe that PCB engineers play a small role in the entire process of the product line, and the labor cost will definitely not be high; Furthermore, after all, it must be acknowledged that PCB engineers are generally not as skilled as hardware engineers in their work. However, for friends who have just started working and do not have good qualifications (including education, experience, and skills), PCB is undoubtedly one of the easiest jobs to get started in the technology industry; By the way, our company‘s CEO and R&D Director started from PCB.
    No one forces you to do PCB for a lifetime, but learning PCB is definitely beneficial for you. A design engineer who is very familiar with PCB design will definitely have a lot of advantages over ordinary design engineers.
    There are many eda software circulating on the market now, and their advantages and disadvantages vary. Let‘s just talk about the most commonly used and widely used ones
    1. Protel
    Undoubtedly, it is the earliest eda software to come into contact with. In most universities, there are courses on protel software. However, it must be admitted that protel is indeed one of the lowest end software in the eda software family. It is easy to make single panel and two-layer boards, but it starts to feel difficult to use in four layers, let alone more layers. If faced with high-frequency and high-speed multi-layer boards, People who can use protel to make high-quality boards are quite good:
    It is uncertain whether protel will be phased out in the future. There is still a considerable market for people using protel now, but it is recommended that you start learning other software with better functions as soon as possible
    2. Pads
    PowerPCB, which I call the crownless king of low-end PCBs, is the most excellent software among all low-end PCBs. It is easy to use, easy to get started, and the quality of the boards produced is not inferior to that of wg, Allegro, and others. Currently, the most widely used eda software in the market is suitable for the needs of most small and medium-sized enterprises
    3. Orcad
    The PCB of orcad is even worse than protel, but the schematic design part of orcad, capture CIS, is considered one of the best schematic tools in the industry. The interface is beautiful, easy to use, easy to operate, and simulation functions are powerful. If compared to dxdesigner in terms of usage, I think it is advantageous, but dx has very good management functions, integrated environment, schematic reuse, and other functions
    4. Wg
    Mentor‘s latest product, WG2004, is based on the Windows platform. While there is no significant difference in functionality between several mid to high end software, only the software with the coolest cable is good. WG2004 is the software with the coolest cable and is known as the king of cable. Its automatic wiring function is very powerful, and the wiring rule design is very professional. The expeditionPCB is the core part of WG‘s PCB, WG2004 includes three parts: epd2004&library manager&expeditionPCB
    5. En
    As a product of Mentor Company, the latest EN2004 is based on the Unix platform and there are no Chinese textbooks available on the market, making it difficult for many people to learn the software; Its level of expertise determines that it is not suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises, especially small ones. Without this need, why climb mountains and travel long distances to get the fire that can be extinguished with just a bowl of water? Right? Moreover, this software is originally designed for large enterprises, so friends who do not have this need do not need to bother and work hard. If work requires it, it is another matter. Its PCB is still expeditionPCB, The schematic diagram is epd2004, which is basically no different from wg. Its most important aspect is the integrated management system
    6. Allegro
    Schematic design software:
    It‘s OK to know ORCAD. It supports more Netlists and is basically the De facto standard.
    PCB Layout software
    1. Protel
    Now push Altium Designer. The mainstream of low-end design in China is largely unused abroad. Easy to learn, suitable for beginners, easy to get started; It occupies a lot of system resources and requires high computer configuration requirements. There is still a considerable market for people using protel in China, as the hardware circuit design of small and medium-sized companies is mostly low-end. However, it is recommended that you get in touch with and learn other software with better functions as soon as possible, and not always hover at the low level, as it is not very salary friendly!
    2. PADS
    There are also quite a few people using PADS software, which is easy to use and easy to get started. Personally, I feel that it is many times better than Protel. Suitable for mid to low end designs, it can be called the uncrowned king of the low end. The most widely used eda software in the market today is suitable for the needs of most small and medium-sized enterprises. It does not have its own simulation, so when making high-speed boards, it is necessary to combine other specialized simulation tools, such as hyperlynx.
    3. Cadence Allegro
    The actual industry standard in high-speed board design. In every aspect, it‘s amazing. The PCB Layout tool is absolutely top-notch, and once you become a little familiar with it, you no longer want to use other tools. The wiring is super cool. The simulation is also very good. It has its own simulation tools, and can do Signal integrity simulation and Power integrity simulation. Firmly occupying a dominant position in the production of PCB high-speed boards. You should know that 60% of computer motherboards and 40% of mobile phone motherboards in this world are all drawn with Allegro! Now when I make boards, whether simple or complex, I use this one. The small board can be completed in one day. It‘s quite refreshing to use it well.
    4 Mentor WG
    Slightly inferior to CADENCE, but also a top-level tool, targeting high-end circuit design, with its own simulation tools. However, in China, there are relatively few support providers, not as many as Cadence.


Protel For Windows

PCAD EDA For Windows

CADENCE Allegro

PADS PowerPCB

 

Hardware requirements

586 more than IBM PC compatible, minimum 128MB RAM

586 more than IBM PC compatible, minimum 64MB RAM

586 more than IBM PC compatible, minimum 128MB RAM

586 more than IBM PC compatible, minimum 64MB RAM

work environment


Win 95/3.1/NT

Win 95/3.1/NT

WinNT/2K Unix

windows

Ease of operation of interface and instructions

Very friendly, extremely simple

simple and easy

Cumbersome

simple and easy

Design Architecture

simulation 32bit

real mode 32 bit AP

32bit

32bit

Schematic

have

have

haveoptional Orcad

haveoptional

Removable Error ID

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Analog Digital Signal Simulation

Yes

Yes

Outsourcing

Outsourcing

density analysis

have

No have

No have

No have

Preview of components

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Global editing function (Global)

Yes

No

No

No

Maximum Board Size

80x80

60x60

Based on the resolution of the cell, if it is 2, it is millions of square inches

50x50

Layout level settings

32 storey

infinite layer

infinite layer

60 storey

signal layer


20 storey

32 storey

108 electrical layer

16 storey

Circuit diagram VS PCB

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yeschoose

On Line DRC


Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

DXFin&Laye limitations

Restricted Inclusion

Unlimited Inclusion

unlimited

Restricted purchase

Pro-Einterface

Outsourcing

Yes

Yes

choose

Polygon Arc

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Polygon Void

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Component search function

Strong, query range can be across the entire hard drive or even the entire network of the user‘s company

Yes (not strong)

No (relatively weak)

Yes (but not strong)

Design of Plate and Frame

The software provides 10 types of boards that can be manually drawn and loaded into DXF files

Can only be manually drawn and loaded into DXF files

Can only be manually drawn and loaded into DXF files

Can only be manually drawn and loaded into DXF files

ICT automatic testing data for test machine


Yes

Yes

Option

(performance)

option

Pre Autoroute


Yes

Yes

Yes

choose

Including CAM software


Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Signal integrity


Yes

Yes

option

choose

Node lock Price

NT 310,000

NT350,000

Us$16000

NT650,000

Network Price

No

NT437,000

 

NT810,000

project


Protel 99se

P-CAD 2001

CADENCE Allegro

Power pcb 4.0

Power Logic

have

have

have

havechoose

Dynamic Route Editor

have

have

have

have

Auto Dimension

have

have

have

have

EMC Line sim

havechoose

have

havechoose

havechoose

EMC Board sim

havechoose

have

havechoose

havechoose

Continuity of old data

Only Win version compatible

have

Unix only, Win version compatible

Only Win version compatible

Layer Settings

32 layer electrical layer, 16 layer plane layer, 16 layer mechanism marking layer, and other internal text layer and steel plate layer

999 floors, 990 floors Electrical layer

108 electrical layers, unlimited non electrical layers

250 floors in total, 64 electrical floors

DXF LINK


have

have

have

havechoose

Pro-E LINK


havechoose

have

have

havechoose

Edit

have

have

have

havechoose

3D PCB Viewer

have

not have

not have

havechoose

UnDo/ReDo

Strong, even if the file has been saved, it is still available, and it is convenient to edit the undo/redo times

Yes (customization is quite cumbersome and not very powerful)

not have

haveBut not strong

Design accuracy

0.001Mil

0.1Mil

0.0001Mil

0.01Mil

Name of custom layer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Automatic avoidance of obstacles

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Automatic wiring support for pre wiring

strong

have

have

no have

Design rule support for automatic wiring

strong

have

have

have

Design Browser

haveAnd strong

no have

no have

no have

Digital Simulation

Yes

Yes

Optional

Optional

Custom level

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cancellation of rules

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

The shape of tears

Line/Arc

have

have

have

Teardrop removal

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

 












   
      
      
   
   


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