05-29, 14:25–15:10 (America/Los_Angeles), Theater
Designing a PCB is more than just routing and connecting components—it's about ensuring your board can be manufactured without expensive reworks and delays. That's where DRCs come in. They act as a defense against design for manufacturing issues, catching mistakes before they reach the fab house. KiCad 9 takes this further with custom DRCs, ensuring manufacturability from the initial design phase.
In this presentation, you’ll learn how to set up custom DRC in KiCad 9 to prevent critical manufacturing errors.
Configuring KiCad 9 custom DRC to prevent DFM issues
The updated KiCad 9 DRC engine allows deeper customization, letting you define rules and match your CM's capabilities. You can set up the constraints in advance for trace width and drill sizes and eliminate the guessing game.
One of the common pitfalls in PCB design is violating trace width and spacing requirements. If traces are too thin, they might cause overheating. If they are too close together, there is a higher risk of short circuits. To counter this, set the values in the DRC editor for minimum trace width and spacing (for example, 6 mil).
Vias and annular rings are widely prone to manufacturing issues. When via holes or annular ring dimensions are too small, it might lead to open circuits. Set minimum via sizes and annular ring widths to match your PCB fab's drill tolerances. Configure the DRC as per your drill-to-copper clearance requirements (prefer 8 mil). Rules for silkscreen and solder mask must be applied to ensure legible text and adequate mask relief.
Instead of applying length-matching rules for individual traces, you can create a group and set constraints for preventing signal skew.
Don't forget to validate component placement with your DRC. To prevent assembly issues, define keep-out zones near the board edges and between large components.
Configuring DRC makes your design ready for will make your prototypes ready for production. Use KiCad 9 custom DRC to enforce practical design for manufacturing rules.
What you’ll learn:
● What’s new in KiCad 9?
● Common DFM issues
● Benefits of custom DRCs for DFM compliance
● Setting Up custom DRC rules in KiCad 9
○ Creating custom trace width and spacing rules
○ Setting up via and annular ring constraints
○ Implementing silkscreen and solder mask rules
○ Validating component placement
○ Length matching for a group of signals
○ Defining rules for specific layers and regions
Amit Bahl, widely recognized as the PCB Guy, currently serves as the Chief Revenue Officer at Sierra Circuits. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from UCLA in 1997, launching his career in Silicon Valley's tech industry. In 2009, he assumed the role of Director of Sales and Marketing at Sierra Circuits, with a dedicated focus on democratizing design for manufacturing best practices and guidelines for PCB designers and engineers. Assuming the position of Chief Revenue Officer since 2022, Amit's mission persists: to simplify the PCB design journey for all stakeholders. His unwavering dedication continues to drive Sierra Circuits as a trusted resource for the PCB design community.