Mentor Graphics Xpedition: Streamlining PCB Design for the Future

Schematic Capture

Mentor Graphics Xpedition provides a comprehensive suite of PCB design tools, and at its heart lies Xpedition Enterprise, a powerful schematic capture solution. This software is designed to streamline the design process, enhance collaboration, and ensure accuracy from concept to manufacturing.

Xpedition Enterprise offers a modern and intuitive interface with customizable workspaces, allowing engineers to tailor the environment to their specific needs. The software supports hierarchical design methodologies, enabling the management of complex designs by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable modules. This approach simplifies design review, reuse, and team collaboration.

One of the standout features of Xpedition Enterprise is its robust library management system. It provides access to an extensive database of pre-built components and models, including symbols, footprints, and simulation models. Designers can easily search, select, and place components from the library, saving time and reducing the risk of errors. The software also includes tools for creating custom components and managing library data, ensuring consistency and accuracy across designs.

Collaboration is crucial in PCB design, and Xpedition Enterprise excels in this area. It offers real-time design sharing and concurrent editing capabilities, allowing multiple engineers to work on the same project simultaneously. This feature streamlines the design process, reduces design cycle time, and minimizes the risk of integration issues.

Xpedition Enterprise also integrates seamlessly with other tools in the Xpedition suite, such as PCB layout, signal integrity analysis, and design rule checking. This tight integration ensures data integrity and simplifies the design flow, allowing engineers to move seamlessly between different design stages. The software also supports industry-standard formats for data exchange, enabling collaboration with external partners and suppliers.

In addition to its core features, Xpedition Enterprise offers advanced capabilities such as variant management, design reuse, and automated documentation generation. These features further enhance productivity, reduce design errors, and streamline the overall design process.

Overall, Mentor Graphics Xpedition Enterprise is a powerful and comprehensive schematic capture solution that provides PCB designers with the tools they need to tackle complex designs efficiently and accurately. Its intuitive interface, robust library management, collaboration features, and tight integration with other Xpedition tools make it an ideal choice for engineers looking to streamline their design process and accelerate time to market.

Layout

The Xpedition layout environment within the Xpedition Enterprise platform provides a powerful and integrated suite of tools for PCB design. It offers a comprehensive and unified environment for schematic capture, layout, and routing. Xpedition Layout excels in handling complex, high-density designs commonly found in industries like telecommunications, aerospace, and automotive. Let's delve into some key aspects of Xpedition Layout:

Constraint Management: Xpedition Layout is tightly integrated with Xpedition Constraint Manager, ensuring that design rules and constraints are seamlessly enforced throughout the layout process. This integration helps designers avoid costly respins and ensures design integrity from the start.

Placement and Routing: Xpedition Layout offers a range of automated and manual placement and routing tools. The software can intelligently place components based on constraints, optimize routing for signal integrity, and provide interactive routing capabilities for fine-tuning.

3D Design and Visualization: With the increasing complexity of PCB designs, 3D visualization has become essential. Xpedition Layout provides a powerful 3D environment that allows designers to visualize the board in a realistic manner. This helps in identifying potential mechanical clashes and clearances early in the design cycle.

Collaboration and Data Management: Xpedition Layout is built for collaboration. It allows multiple designers to work on the same design concurrently, improving efficiency and reducing design time. The software also integrates with version control systems, ensuring data integrity and facilitating design reviews.

High-Speed Design: As data rates increase, high-speed design considerations become paramount. Xpedition Layout includes features specifically designed to address these challenges, such as differential pair routing, length and impedance matching, and crosstalk analysis.

Manufacturing Outputs: Once the design is finalized, Xpedition Layout generates all the necessary manufacturing outputs, including Gerber files, drill drawings, and assembly drawings. These outputs are industry-standard, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of manufacturers.

Xpedition VX is a software product from Mentor Graphics, now part of Siemens Digital Industries Software. It is a comprehensive PCB design and analysis solution that offers a range of features to address the challenges of modern electronics development. Here are some key aspects of Xpedition VX:

Integrated Design Environment: Xpedition VX provides a unified environment for schematic capture, layout, routing, and analysis. This integration streamlines the design process, reduces errors, and improves overall efficiency.

Advanced Routing Capabilities: Xpedition VX offers a comprehensive set of routing tools, including auto-interactive routing, shape-based routing, and differential pair routing. These tools enable designers to efficiently route complex designs while meeting signal integrity requirements.

Signal Integrity Analysis: Xpedition VX includes powerful signal integrity analysis tools that allow designers to identify and resolve potential signal integrity issues early in the design process. This helps to avoid costly respins and ensures the reliability of high-speed designs.

Thermal Analysis: With increasing power densities, thermal management has become a critical aspect of PCB design. Xpedition VX provides thermal analysis capabilities that allow designers to simulate and optimize the thermal performance of their designs.

Design for Manufacturing (DFM): Xpedition VX includes DFM features that help designers ensure that their boards can be manufactured reliably and cost-effectively. These features include design rule checking, manufacturability analysis, and panelization tools.

Data Management and Collaboration: Xpedition VX offers robust data management and collaboration features that enable design teams to work together effectively. These features include version control, access control, and design review capabilities.

In conclusion, both Xpedition Layout, as part of the Xpedition Enterprise platform, and Xpedition VX are powerful PCB design solutions from Siemens Digital Industries Software. They offer a comprehensive set of features to address the challenges of modern electronics development, from initial concept to final manufacturing. These tools are particularly well-suited for complex, high-speed designs and provide designers with the capabilities they need to create innovative and reliable electronic products.

Simulation

Mentor Graphics Xpedition Enterprise is a comprehensive suite of PCB design and analysis tools. It includes a powerful simulation engine that allows engineers to verify the functionality and performance of their designs before they are built. This can save significant time and money by identifying and resolving problems early in the design cycle.

One of the key benefits of using Xpedition for simulation is its tight integration with the other tools in the suite. For example, the schematic capture and layout tools are directly linked to the simulator, so changes made in one tool are automatically reflected in the other. This ensures that the simulation results are always accurate and up-to-date.

Xpedition supports a wide range of simulation types, including:

• Analog simulation
• Digital simulation
• Mixed-signal simulation
• Signal integrity analysis
• Power integrity analysis
• Thermal analysis

This allows engineers to verify all aspects of their designs, from the functionality of individual circuits to the overall performance of the system.

Overall, the simulation capabilities of Mentor Graphics Xpedition Enterprise are a valuable asset for any PCB design team. They can help to improve the quality and reliability of designs, while also reducing design time and costs.

Xpedition's comprehensive and integrated suite of tools has been instrumental in our ability to design and validate complex electronic systems, enabling us to meet our time-to-market goals and deliver high-quality products.

Albert Hammond

Library Management

Mentor Graphics Xpedition, a comprehensive suite for electronic design automation (EDA), offers robust library management capabilities. This is crucial for streamlining design processes and ensuring accuracy. Xpedition integrates seamlessly with Mentor Graphics' library management software, Teamcenter Engineering and Library Management System (LMS). This integration provides a centralized repository for all design data, including schematic symbols, PCB footprints, and simulation models.

Design teams benefit from real-time access to verified and up-to-date component information. This prevents the use of outdated or incorrect data, reducing design errors and costly rework. The software's intuitive interface simplifies library management tasks, such as component creation, modification, and validation. It supports industry-standard data formats, enabling easy data exchange between different design tools.

Version control and lifecycle management features ensure that only approved and released components are used in designs. This maintains design integrity and facilitates collaboration among team members. Advanced search and filtering capabilities within Teamcenter Engineering and LMS allow engineers to quickly locate desired components from extensive libraries. Parameters like electrical characteristics, package type, and manufacturer can be used for precise searches.

The software's integrated environment streamlines component qualification and approval processes. This ensures that all components meet the required design specifications and quality standards. Real-time collaboration tools facilitate communication among library managers, component engineers, and design teams. This fosters a collaborative environment for library management, reducing errors and improving overall efficiency.

Mentor Graphics Xpedition, in conjunction with Teamcenter Engineering and LMS, provides a comprehensive and efficient solution for library management in electronic design. By centralizing design data, streamlining workflows, and ensuring data integrity, these tools empower engineering teams to enhance productivity, reduce time-to-market, and deliver high-quality products.

Manufacturing Outputs

Mentor Graphics Xpedition, a comprehensive suite of PCB design tools, seamlessly integrates with Valor NPI software to streamline the transition from design to manufacturing. This integration is crucial for optimizing manufacturing outputs and ensuring the final product meets the highest quality standards.

Xpedition's advanced features, including design for manufacturing (DFM) analysis and Valor NPI's comprehensive manufacturing process management capabilities, work in unison to identify and mitigate potential production issues early in the design cycle. This proactive approach minimizes costly rework, reduces time-to-market, and enhances overall product reliability.

By leveraging Xpedition's detailed design data, Valor NPI can generate accurate bills of materials (BOMs), optimize component placement for efficient assembly, and create detailed manufacturing instructions. This data continuity eliminates manual data entry errors and ensures that the manufacturing process adheres to the design intent.

Moreover, the integration facilitates collaboration between design and manufacturing teams. Xpedition's design data can be easily shared with Valor NPI, enabling manufacturing engineers to provide feedback on design feasibility and manufacturability. This iterative feedback loop fosters communication and ensures that design decisions are aligned with manufacturing capabilities.

The combined capabilities of Mentor Graphics Xpedition and Valor NPI empower manufacturers to achieve:

Reduced manufacturing costs

Improved product quality

Faster time-to-market

Enhanced collaboration between design and manufacturing teams

Optimized manufacturing processes

In conclusion, the integration of Mentor Graphics Xpedition and Valor NPI provides a powerful solution for optimizing manufacturing outputs. By bridging the gap between design and manufacturing, this integration enables companies to produce high-quality products efficiently and cost-effectively.