New IPC compliant foorptrint wizard

In line with the latest standards developed within the electronics industry Altium Designer now supports IPC (Institute for Printed Circuits) compliant board-level libraries plus wizard-based component footprint creation to the IPC-7351 standard.

This recently-developed IPC definition – Generic Requirements for Surface Mount Design and Land Pattern Standard – provides a framework for more accurate component definition and addresses the increasing need for global standardization in the way components are developed, categorized and defined. The IPC-7351 standard uses IPC-developed mathematical algorithms that allow for fabrication, assembly and component tolerances to create accurate, real-world footprint patterns. Along with providing more precise and standardized footprints, IPC-7351 compliant components better support the high component densities of today’s products while allowing for defined solder joint (Filleting) engineering goals.

These engineering goals are grouped into three user-nominated categories to allow for variations in product usage and board design density – the options are defined as Least, Nominal and Most pad area protrusion:

  • Least footprint pad protrusion applies to high component density products where the pattern allows for the least amount of solder. This is the least robust option but allows for a high degree of board-level miniaturization.
  • Nominal footprint pad protrusion provides a moderate level of solder spread for a balance between component density and solder joint attachment strength.
  • Most footprint pad protrusion applies where larger pads will take the most solder to create a robust joint attachment. This is desirable for hand-held or potable products where durability takes priority over high component density.

Roll your own

While Altium Designer IPC compliant footprint libraries are being developed by Altium’s Library Development Center, Altium Designer 6 offers a new footprint wizard to create your own IPC compliant component footprints. In essence, the wizard will create footprints from the actual (manufacturer-sourced) component dimensions in accordance with the IPC algorithms, using standard Altium Designer objects such as pads and tracks.

Introduced in Altium Designer 6.3, the new wizard is launched from the PCB Library Editor’s Tools menu – when a PCB library is the active document – and creates IPC compliant footprints though a sequence of easy steps. The wizard has been significantly enhanced in the latest release – Altium Designer 6.6 – with the addition of a dynamic preview window, additional control options and a variety of new package types.

IPC

Quickly create IPC-compliant component footprints based on component
dimensions in Altium Designer's new footprint wizard.

With the new IPC complant footprint wizard you can now select from a range of new footprint generators including Chip Components (Capacitor, Inductor and Resistor), QFN, SOJ, SOT23 (3-Leads, 5-Leads and 6-Leads), SOT143/343 and SOT223 types. You can also nominate and immediately view overall packaging dimensions, pin information, heel spacing, solder fillets (the above Least, Nominal and More options) and dimensional tolerances. Mechanical dimensions such as Courtyard, Assembly, and Component Body Information can also be entered.

While you can still use the established PCB Component Wizard to develop component footprints in Altium Designer, the new IPC complaint footprint wizard and IPC library support provides a convenient, easy-to-use alternative for designers wishing to standardize on and work with IPC-7351 complaint component footprints.