New integration smoothes PCB design

A Polar Instruments Europe product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team May 16, 2008

The integration of Speedstack and Gemini-X adds the capability to predict and compensate for registration and distortion errors during stack-up design.

Polar Instruments and Xact PCB have improved the integration between Polar's Speedstack controlled-impedance PCB stackup system and Xact's Gemini-X PCB registration, prediction and control system.

As stand-alone systems, these tools provide fabricators with design tools for PCB fabrication.

They combine to deliver high levels of control, accuracy and integrity.

Xact's Gemini-X PCB registration prediction and control system allows fabricators of high-density PCBs to identify and control registration and compensate for the distortion which occurs during manufacturing processes.

Polar Instruments' Speedstack radically reduces the time required for controlled-impedance PCB stack-up design.

Used separately, each of these tools reduces fabrication errors and increases manufacturing yields.

The new integration, however, adds the capability to predict and compensate for registration and distortion errors during stack-up design.

Polar's Sales and Marketing Director, Martyn Gaudion explains: "Many of our customers are already using both tools side-by-side during PCB design, so providing this new level of integration is a logical progression which allows them to access the capabilities of both systems in a single, more streamlined process".

"Integrating impedance control with the predictive elimination of errors during the stack-up adds a new dimension to PCB design which significantly increases the manufacturing yield and reduces costs".

Polar's Speedstack controlled-impedance stack-up builder can be integrated with Xact's Linear+ and NonLinear+ predictive versions of the Gemini-X inner-layer registration control system.

Xact's self-learning model constantly analyses design and measurement information to predict the movement that will occur during PCB fabrication.

The new link allows fabricators to view powerful visualisations of the stack-up, incorporating dynamic prediction of the layer by layer scale factors, reducing engineering time and increasing the integrity and manufacturing yield of high-density PCBs.