Software stacks up PCB design advantages

Stack-up creation tool dramatically cuts the time required for electronics engineers or PCB fabricators to create and document multilayer printed circuit board stackups.

New from Polar Instruments, Speedstack 2.0 is an automated PCB stack-up creation tool which dramatically cuts the time required for electronics engineers or PCB fabricators to create and document multilayer printed circuit board stackups.

Using basic information such as the overall board thickness, number of layers and target impedance, Speedstack 2.0 generates a number of virtual stacks based on a library of generic or real-time material costs, availability and lead times.

Users can balance different criteria by ranking the potential stacks by cost, finished thickness, or the availability of materials.

Speedstack 2.0's unique autostack VSR (virtual stack realisation) engine performs a Monte Carlo analysis on 10,000 virtual builds of each stack to provide a statistical profile of board thickness and an accurate prediction of production yields.

Stacks can be professionally documented with a single click and shared between the design engineer and the PCB fabricator using the Speedstack Viewer.

This significantly improves communication and reduces or eliminates the errors which can occur through misinterpretation of data, which has traditionally been presented in Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents.

Speedstack 2.0 introduces the next generation of automated stack-up tools and integrates a number of powerful new features: impedance goal seeking, customisable reports and support for IPC slash sheets, stacked vias and microvias, as well as enhanced rules check and thickness calculations.

Real-time updates to material costs and lead-times allow supply chain management and enhanced cost control to be integrated into the decision-making process.

Speedstack 2.0 is available as a stand-alone stack-up builder or in versions that interface with other Polar Instruments tools for fabricators and design engineers: Speedstack PCB is optimised for fabricators and includes an interface to Polar's Si8000m controlled impedance and stackup tool; and Speedstack Si interfaces to Polar's Si9000e to allow design engineers to perform advanced transmission line design.

All versions support fully automated, semi-automated or manual stack creation and include powerful editing tools to allow stacks to be tweaked and fine tuned.

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