BGA Fanout in PowerPCB v5.01

[MarkW]

Hi to all;

Hi to all:

This is a question for PowerPCB users. What is the quickest way to add
fanout via's to a BGA decal. Also, how do you place a free via
(stiching via).

Being new to the BGA game, Ive been pounding away at this for a while.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Mark

 

[Leon Heller]

Hi to all;

Hi to all:

This is a question for PowerPCB users. What is the quickest way to add
fanout via's to a BGA decal. Also, how do you place a free via
(stiching via).

Being new to the BGA game, Ive been pounding away at this for a while.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Pulsonix has 'breakout' tracks and vias. Perhaps PowerPCB has something
similar.

Leon

 

[Boris Mohar]

I find it excellent. I'm biased though, as I helped beta-test it, and it's
got lots of my suggested features in it.

Leon

What possessed them to write it so that it does not run on WIN98?

--

Regards,

Boris Mohar
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs

 

[Leon Heller]

What possessed them to write it so that it does not run on WIN98?

Strange, I actually used to run it under Win98SE! I now use WinME.

Leon

 

[Leon Heller]

Hi Leon:

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, PowerPCB does not seem to
have this feature. If it's there it's not documented.

Before breakout vias and tracks were added to Pulsonix, I worked out a way
to do something similar for BGAs, using the existing facilities. You might
be able to do something similar with PowerPCB.

To create the basic footprint I first created an array of BGA pads (on the
top layer, of course). I then created a separate array of vias, selected
them all and dragged them into position next to the pads. That was quite
fast. After placing the footprint on the PCB, I put in all the tracks
between each via and its associated pad. This was rather tedious; I think I
used a macro to speed it up. I tested the technique with three BGAs and an
ordinary SMD part - it autorouted OK on an 8-layer board. I never actually
used it for real.

Leon

 

[Boris Mohar]

Strange, I actually used to run it under Win98SE! I now use WinME.

Leon

Sorry, I take it back. Had it confused with Auto TRAX EDA

I use Orcad PCB386+ and for fanning out I use macros. Slick and quick.

--

Regards,

Boris Mohar
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs http://www3.sympatico.ca/borism/
Aurora, Ontario

 

[MarkW]

Hi Leon and Boris:

I think I found a fix for now.

What I did was create the part(sch symbol and PCB decal) and export it
to the PowerPCB. From there it gets imported into BlazeRouter.

I found a feature in BlazeRouter called "Fanout" (fancy that)

It lets you select a part and do a via fanout for it. It's not exactly
the way I'd like to see it but it does create a functional fanout.

From there it gets opened back up in PowerPCB to do the manual
routing.

Phew!

I'm going to play around with what you guys suggested. And see if I
can find an alternative to the above.

Thanks for the suggestions.

By the way Leon, I recognize your name now from when I was trying the
Pulsonix demo. I'd like to see Pulsonix really catch on with the CAD
guys. Lot of bang for the buck in that program.

Unfortunately most fo the customers I deal with are using the Mentor
Graphics and Orcad packages. I tell people that are just getting into
the PCB CAD arena to take a serious look at the Pulsonix package.

Thanks again guys.

Mark