Why eliminating schematic design errors is important
With today’s circuit designs becoming more and more complex, time-consuming manual schematic verification is no longer an option. Manual verification of a complex circuit introduces significant risk by not identifying schematic design errors that are, in turn, passed to the downstream processes and ultimately to the fabricated board. This results in costly respins and increased time to market. This paper discusses how an efficient, fully automated, schematic review process can be an enabler for design teams to eliminate schematic design errors, thereby reducing costly respins and improving time to market.

​

Common design issues during manual schematic review

• Components not properly connected to power and/or ground

• Missing power

• Diodes oriented incorrectly

• Nets missing receiver

• Pin voltage mismatch (different voltage thresholds)

• Wrong board-to-board connectors

• Minor issues resulting in unnecessary delays, cost, and risk

While these are not complex issues, it is difficult, if not impossible, to visually find all occurrences of these issues in a complex design. And these are just the most common schematic issues. There are many more potential issues that a manual review simply cannot find.

​

The importance of fully automated schematic integrity analysis
By fully automating schematic verification to occur during schematic capture, rather than after, the development process shifts to the left, resulting in proven benefits such as reduced cycle time, lower costs, and the elimination of design spins. Using Xpedition® schematic integrity analysis, engineers can fully inspect all nets on a schematic using pre-defined checks and an extensive intelligent model component library. This automated schematic analysis can save design teams hundreds of hours of visual inspection and lab debug time. The checks execute rapidly in parallel with schematic capture, such that layout can commence with the highest confidence for first-pass success.