Designing and Planning a Printed-Circuit Board (PCB) Prototype

Evaluation Printed-circuit board (PCB) prototype design is a key step in evaluating, testing, and proving novel circuit concepts [1-2], especially when considering integrated circuit (IC) implementations are costly, time-consuming, and difficult to debug, which is why PCBs precede ICs in the experimental and developmental process, whenever possible. The popularity of PCB prototype design has therefore spread from industry to academia. However, evaluation time, measurements, and results, without a robust test plan, can be adversely affected, ultimately delaying the schedule and sacrificing reliability. Careful planning will avoid most of these drawbacks by addressing them early in the PCB design phase, by, for example, choosing the most appropriate equipment and test probes for the kinds of signals to be tested, by carefully placing additional test points, connectors, and circuits, and by other similar techniques, as shown in this document.