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PCB Review and Release Process

PCB Review and Release Process

Owned by Zachary Perry
Sep 13, 2023
2 min read

Introduction

This is a guide for the NER PCB project lifecycle; walking through the overall process of how PCB projects are created, reviewed, released, and submitted for manufacture.

This guide assumes that you have Altium installed and you are logged into the NER vault. To learn more about Altium and how to design PCBs, see https://nerdocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/NER/pages/3932597.

Initial Design Review

For all PCBs, the surrounding system and the PCB requirements must be reviewed before design can begin. This keeps PCB design work from being wasted due to external conflicts.

This review must include:

Item

Description

Item

Description

System

What do we need out of this board? What is the required functionality?

Electrical

How does this board interface with other circuits? What inputs and outputs are needed? What connectors do we expect to use?

Mechanical

What is the board footprint? How is it mounted? What environmental protection is needed? What does the enclosure look like?

These items can’t all be fully fleshed out before design starts, but all should be considered.

Creating a Project

To create a PCB, select File > New > Project. In the create project menu, select NER Standard Project under the PCB tab. Give your project a Name and Description. Click Create.

 

 

In the explore menu, drag your project into the relevant Car and System folder. From here you can start designing your PCB Schematic! See https://nerdocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/NER/pages/3932597 to learn more and make sure you’re following all NER procedures.

Schematic Review

 

Release

In order to release a PCB to be manufactured the following must have been completed:

  1. Schematic and PCB Reviews

    1. Ensure that all questions have been responded to and all tasks are completed

  2. Component Review

    1. Check the project .BomDoc file, ensure that all components are in the “Reviewed” state

  3. Generate a Release Conflunce Page

    1. Create a new page within your project using the PCB Release page template

B. Generating a Revision

 

C. Reviewing the Revision

 

D. Uploading Files to Manufacturer