Dayford Designs has dramatically advanced its design capability to complete a UTMS technology project for an innovative new portable wireless Internet access device to be launched later this year by IPWireless.
The IPWireless 3G modem will feature high-speed communications providing several megabits per second, making a real breakthrough to true portable 'anytime, anywhere' wireless access to the Internet.
The PCB technology underlying this groundbreaking development was the most advanced Dayford had ever undertaken and posed a number of challenges.
The design was laid out using Zuken's Visula system and features 0.8mm pitch ball grid arrays (BGAs) and an unusual combination of through, buried, blind and micro-vias.
The board comprised 13 layers, using three different substrates.
Resin clad copper (RCC) over FR4 was used to provide laser-drilled micro-vias for the digital layers and a Rogers ceramic material was chosen for the radio section on the other side of the board because of its low dielectric constant.
Signal integrity was paramount resulting in a number of routing constraints and considerations including crosstalk, characteristic impedance, RF/EMI, EMC etc.
Product packaging and mechanical design was carried out by IPWireless' Pro-Engineer designers in Scotland.
Concurrent design interaction between all parties was achieved through E-CAD/M-CAD links (IDF) which brought significant benefits in speed and reduced respins.
Dayford also assisted in identifying a fabricator capable of manufacturing this demanding board not only prototypes but in volume and at a competitive price.
A Far Eastern company was chosen because of its technical competence, ability to meet the target price and to develop the necessary processes/techniques.
Design review meetings were held between all parties to ensure that the PCB was designed for cost-effective fabrication, assembly and test.
The design was analysed/verified by Dayford using Valor's 'Enterprise' system and ODB++ data supplied to the assemblers.
The ODB++ data transfer protocol was developed by Valor to enable intelligent data to pass from the original CAD system down through the supply chain to avoid translation errors, reduce costs, improve quality and save time.
Time-to-market is critical in high-tech consumer markets, and Roger Nichol of IPWireless said: 'We chose Dayford for this critical project because of Dayford's flexibility in meeting aggressive turnaround times and their willingness to work together with IPWireless to adopt new technologies.
Dayford's track record in high-tech board design and staff quality and numbers assured us that the project would be brought in on target'.
(This was Electronicstalk's Top Story on 5 August 2002) | 
