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DFM DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING

Valor Manufacturing Engineering Solutions (a.k.a Trilogy)

Valor, Trilogy 5000, is verification software for printed circuit board compter aided designs. It has been independently developed by Valor Design Systems, and, therefore, provides unbiased evaluations of your company’s designs. Valor performs many multiple measurements that are too numerous to list here.
However, there are two distinct types of verifications:
Design For Fabrication (DFF) and Design For Assembly (DFA), also known as Design For Manufacturing (DFM), tests net connectivity, air gaps and line widths, annular ring, solder mask and solder paste, and many other PCB fabrication items. DFA tests component spacing, rout clearances, heel and toe fillets, and many more PCB assembly issues.

OPTIMUM is able to perform Valor analyses of your company’s designs. In order to complete the checks without delay, we need the following data provided to us::

DFF Analysis Data Requirements

DFF verification requires the files that will be used in the fabrication process.

If Gerber data is used, then Valor will need:

All Gerber files (RS274X) Signal layers Solder mask Silkscreen Paste mask
NC drill layers
Netlist (IPC-D-356)

If ODB++ files will be used for fabricating the boards, then that is the only file needed for Valor to perform a DFF check. However, please call the OPTIMUM design team for details on how to set the output dialog parameters within the design tool to generate this file.

DFA Analysis Data Requirements

DFA verification requires:

ODB++ file (or design database1)
Bill of Materials (BOM) Excel® spreadsheet format for the BOM is preferred.

The BOM must include these columns:

Item Number (or CPN / IPN)
Quantity
Reference Designators
Manufacturer (not Vendor)
Mfr. Part Number (MPN)

If the BOM is a combined List of Materials (LM) and an Approved Vendor List (AVL), then any second sources must be listed on separate lines in a text file, or rows in a spreadsheet. A separate AVL may be submitted along with a BOM that has a linking CPN or IPN column. Please note that vendor information can not be used.