DFM Throughout Your Design Cycle

Studies show that 70-80% of the quality and manufacturing yield of your designs comes from design, not manufacturing. Furthermore, finding and fixing design errors become orders of magnitude more expensive as your design proceeds through manufacturing. As a result, it pays to catch manufacturability issues as early as possible. Sunstone Circuits offers multiple check systems for you to increase your odds of achieving a working prototype on the first build spin. First let's look at the tools available to you.    

DFM Add-Ons

DFM Add-Ons are the start of the process. Sunstone has captured their most common manufacturing capabilities in rules files loadable into some of the most common PCB CAD tools. With the DFM Add-On files loaded, your CAD system's integrated DRC checker will report design issues real-time. You'll find that the Add-Ons not only reduce the errors you find later, but will also speed up your work by flagging violations before you commit them to your design file. Benefits to users of the DFM Add-On include:

  • Reduced costs – Helps eliminate design errors early in the design process, minimizing the need for costly corrections later.
  • Reduced time – Design a PCB more quickly by utilizing an existing rule deck instead of users creating their own.
  • Process simplification – Relieve pain points in the design process by following a rule deck every step of the way.

With the DFM Add-On, our EAGLE customers can verify that their design is in compliance with our DFM guidelines at every step of the design process. The Add-Ons help solve the historical issue of end users having to write their own interpretation of the fabrication vendor’s rules, a process that often leads to errors that are not discovered until late in the design process, thus making them expensive problems to fix. Sunstone’s DFM Add-On for EAGLE PCB Layout can be downloaded from Sunstone’s website at     

Human Inspection

Complementing the software tools, Sunstone Circuits also offers sophisticated human-inspection services when your project really needs high degrees of scrutiny.   

Production Design Reviews  

An optional service available through our CAM department. In coordination with a DFMplus report, our manufacturing experts will deliver a hit list of items to fix in our board and how to effect those fixes.     

AOI

eTest 

Make use of our flying probe test capabilities to verify functionality of your design once committed to hardware. eTest is one of the last-stand DFM checks, providing confidence that what got built matches what got sent with the order.'    

DFMplus

With Sunstone's new DFMplus tool, you can submit your final design file to our free online DFM service. We'll create a comprehensive report for your board. For more information on DFMplus, click here.