PCB Designers' Complimentary Bill of Materials Software
Sierra's BOM Checker tool is revolutionizing the PCB design industry by offering a comprehensive analysis of the bill of materials (BOM), aiming to detect and resolve potential issues before production. This proactive approach helps to avoid assembly errors, reduce costs, and prevent production delays.
Key features of Sierra's BOM Checker include:
- Footprint compatibility checks: The tool ensures that components and the PCB design are compatible, preventing footprint mismatches.
- Manufacturability and assembly validation: The tool verifies that components in the BOM meet manufacturability and assembly requirements.
- Design for Assembly (DFA) analysis: The tool supports error-free PCB assembly by conducting DFA analysis.
- BOM optimisation: The tool helps refine the BOM by reducing component count and avoiding problematic parts that increase assembly complexity or cost.
- Industry standard alignment: The tool aligns with industry standards like IPC to improve quality and reliability.
The BOM Checker tool offers both full and partial turnkey options, ensuring flexibility for users. It checks the reference designator and quantity columns for consistency, alerts users to mismatches, and highlights duplicate reference designators.
Moreover, the tool compares Incorrect Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs) on the BOM with component distributors, finds and compares component pricing across multiple vendors, and informs users of long lead-time components, giving the option to change to a component with shorter lead-times.
Sierra's BOM Checker also helps correct issues in the BOM before pricing, saving time and eliminating hassle during the manufacturing process. The tool is available for download and is part of Sierra Circuits' broader PCB assembly and manufacturing capabilities that include fast turnaround times and multilayer PCB builds.
The PCB Material Design Guide, a 40-minute read containing 9 chapters and 30 pages, covers basic properties of the dielectric material, signal loss in PCB substrates, copper foil selection, and key considerations for choosing PCB materials. This guide is separate from the BOM Checker tool and is also available for download.
By catching errors early and optimising the BOM, Sierra's BOM Checker significantly reduces rework, cost overruns, and time-to-market for PCB manufacturing.
Data-and-cloud-computing technology enables Sierra's BOM Checker to compare component pricing across multiple vendors, increasing cost efficiency in PCB assembly. The tool also utilizes technology to inform users of long lead-time components and offer alternatives with shorter lead-times, thereby streamlining the manufacturing process.
