An Electromechanical Approach to a Printed Circuit Board Design Course

This paper describes a printed circuit board (PCB) design course based on electromechanical workflow. The course relies on the premise that a PCB is an integral component of any electronic apparatus, along with its other electromechanical and mechanical components. To emphasize this to students, electrical and mechanical computer-aided design tools are used in synergy. The course content is described in detail, and the design workflow is illustrated, using a project to design a data acquisition instrument as an example.