How to handle PCB constraints for IoT designs

Constraints management is a tricky task in PCB design at the best of times. The high frequency RF issues and regulatory requirements being raised as more projects target the Internet of Things are making it harder still.

A new technical article offers a range of tips and techniques as to how to manage your constraints for such a project. Written by David Zima, an RF/Microwave design engineer with consultancy RF Laboratories, it provides both high level and detailed guidelines and best practices.

As the specifications for IoT-based designs become more complex, they require close observation of high frequency design rules and protocols as well as a much wider range of regulations.

Zima bases much of his advice on how designers should apply the constraints management features within the PADS Professional PCB design platform from Mentor, a Siemens business.

However, he also discusses at length the steps designers should take beforehand: the critical questions that should be dealt with at an early stage, the importance of reference layouts for copper levels, and the need to establish the place-and-route path from antenna to RF IC.

‘How RF Laboratories accelerates RF PCB design for IoT with Constraint Management‘ packs a lot of practical advice into a short but highly practical read and is available for download here.