PCB design

Layout is where the schematic becomes a real product

A design that simulates well can still fail EMC, cost too much to assemble, or be impossible to rework. We lay out boards with the fabricator, the compliance lab and the service engineer all in mind.

Discuss a layoutSee hardware design
A multilayer PCB layout in CAD — a 120 by 95 mm board showing routed signal and power layers, fine-pitch connector fanout, mounting holes, copper pours and dimensioned board outline

Services

What PCB design covers here

Not just track routing. The decisions that determine whether a board works, passes, and can be built at volume.

01

Schematic capture

Hierarchical, reviewable schematics with consistent net naming and design rules attached from the start. Every page is drawn to be read by someone who has to debug the board at two in the morning, not just to compile.
02

Stackup and impedance

Layer count and stackup chosen against the signalling on the board, then controlled-impedance geometry calculated for it. Reference planes stay continuous, because a split under a fast trace is the most common cause of an EMC failure.
03

High-speed routing

DDR fly-by and T-topology, differential pairs, length and skew matching, and return-path management for USB, Ethernet, PCIe and camera interfaces. Timing budgets are closed on paper before the layout is finished.
04

Mixed-signal and power

Analog and digital partitioned deliberately rather than by accident. Power distribution planned as a network — plane capacitance, decoupling placement and IR drop assessed against the current the design actually draws.
05

EMC-aware layout

Emissions and susceptibility treated as layout decisions, not as something the compliance lab discovers. Guard traces, stitching vias, connector placement and cable entry planned around the test you will eventually have to pass.
06

Design for manufacture

Fabrication and assembly constraints applied throughout — annular rings, solder mask slivers, courtyard clearances, panelisation and test point access. Reviewed with the fabricator before release, not after the first rejected panel.

Capability

Complexity we take on

If your board sits outside this, tell us anyway — the honest answer is sometimes that a different partner suits you better.

Construction

  • Single-sided through to high layer-count boards
  • HDI with blind, buried and microvias
  • Fine-pitch BGA fanout and escape routing
  • Rigid and rigid-flex construction

Signal integrity

  • Controlled impedance, single-ended and differential
  • DDR and memory interface routing
  • USB, Ethernet, PCIe and MIPI
  • RF and antenna keep-out planning

Deliverables

  • Fabrication drawings and Gerber or ODB++
  • Assembly drawings and pick-and-place data
  • Bill of materials with sourcing notes
  • Stackup specification and impedance report

Process

How a layout runs

The middle stages are where clients have most influence, and where changes are still cheap.

  1. 01

    Constraints first

    Before a single track is placed we agree the stackup, the impedance targets, the mechanical envelope and the manufacturing capability we are designing to.

  2. 02

    Placement review

    Component placement is where a board is won or lost. You see it, and sign it off, before routing begins — moving a connector later is expensive.

  3. 03

    Route and verify

    Routing against the agreed constraint set, then design rule checks, netlist verification against the schematic, and a 3D clearance check against the enclosure.

  4. 04

    Release and support

    Manufacturing data released to your fabricator or ours, then we stay available through the fabrication queries that always arrive.

Worth knowing

Why placement gets a sign-off

Most of a board's cost, its thermal behaviour, its EMC performance and its serviceability are fixed the moment components are placed. Routing afterwards can only work within those decisions.

So placement is a checkpoint, not an internal step. You see the layout before routing starts, with the reasoning for each cluster — why the regulator sits where it does, why the connector faces that edge, what the keep-outs are protecting. Objections at that stage cost an afternoon. The same objection after routing costs a re-spin.

Evidence

Boards we have laid out

Projects where the layout carried real constraints — mains power, isolation, or a tightly specified output stage.

Turn-key IoT platform for trackside monitoring and data logging

Eight-channel analog acquisition, optically isolated safety monitoring and a custom LoRa-to-Linux bridge on a single 110V AC board.

Connected LED signal marker board for railway applications

Redundant LED strings that degrade rather than go dark, with carrier-independent LTE-M/NB-IoT, GNSS tracking and over-the-air updates on a battery budget.

Turn-key design of a precision 56 kHz loop signal generator

Three signalling frequencies held to ±0.01% with sub-5ms switching, dual waveform output, and a 50Ω output stage driven from 24V DC.

Related

Layout rarely arrives alone

Most PCB work here sits inside a wider engagement. It does not have to.

Hardware development

Architecture, schematic design, component engineering and prototype manufacture.

Firmware development

Bring-up, board support and drivers written by the people who laid the board out.

Turn-key solutions

The whole product, from concept through to production handover.

Send us a schematic

Or a block diagram and a rough mechanical envelope. We will come back with a stackup proposal, the constraints we would design to, and an honest view of the risky parts.

Start a projectinfo@xceedminds.com