Feature: Consumer electronics


I’ve seen PCBs pulled out of factory control units that were caked in a fine mist of hydraulic fluid and metallic dust. A common failing here is lack of attention


to creepage and clearance. Designers oſten stick to the minimum clearances suggested by their CAD soſtware without considering the environment. In a high-voltage EV charging station, a bit of condensation combined with some atmospheric dust creates a conductive path that will eventually lead to an arc-over. We’ve seen many “industrial-grade”


products fail because the designer relied solely on a generic conformal coating rather than designing the board to be inherently resilient. Ticker copper weights (2oz or 3oz) aren’t just for power, they provide the thermal mass needed to survive the heat of a windowless control cabinet in mid-July. If your board relies on a tiny, high-RPM fan to stay alive in an industrial setting, you haven’t designed a robust product. Instead, you have designed a timed fuse as fans fail, but copper doesn’t.


Designing PCBs for the extremes of aerospace Aerospace and mission-critical systems have an entirely different set of constraints. Here, the industry is understandably obsessed with traceability and survivability. It is also an area where I believe we sometimes let “tradition” stifle innovation. Te reliance on legacy components because they were flight-proven in 1998 is a double-edged sword. While it guarantees a known failure rate, it oſten leaves engineers working with ancient, power- hungry silicon that generates too much heat. Te real challenge in aerospace isn’t just


the temperature, it’s the pressure or lack thereof. Outgassing is a genuine concern. Standard materials can release volatile compounds in a vacuum, which then condense on sensitive optics or sensors. We recently worked on a project where the choice of solder mask was dictated entirely by its outgassing profile. It wasn’t about electrical performance, it was about ensuring the board didn’t “fog up” the rest of the satellite. Validation in this sector is a marathon, as


you don’t just “test” an aerospace board, you try to destroy it. Extended thermal cycling, where the board is bounced between -55°C and +125°C for weeks, exposes every single


www.electronicsworld.co.uk July/August 2026 33


The most successful engineers are those who can step back from the screen and imagine their PCB in its worst possible environment


weakness in the laminate and the soldering process. It’s an expensive, rigorous process, but it’s the only way to sleep at night when your hardware is orbiting 300 miles above Earth.


The end of disposable design One trend I’m particularly pleased to see is the gradual move away from the “disposable” mindset, even in consumer tech. Te “Right to Repair” movement is finally forcing designers to think about how a board might be serviced. For years the industry trend was to glue, pot and seal everything into an unserviceable lump. Tis was oſten justified as “environmental protection”, but, frequently, it was just a way to hide a cheap, fragile design. We are now seeing a return to more


modular architectures. Tis is an opportunity for engineers to design boards that are easier to probe and repair. Using high-quality connectors instead of permanent solder-down modules might add 50p to the bill of materials, but it significantly reduces the cost of refurbishment.


Outgassing can affect sensitive optics and sensors


Te technical divide between sectors


is narrowing in terms of complexity, but widening in terms of intent. An industrial designer is now using the same high-speed SoCs as a tablet designer, but they are requiring that chip to work for fiſteen years in a vibrating box. Te most successful engineers are those


who can step back from the screen and imagine their PCB in its worst possible environment. Tey don’t just design for the “happy path”, where the power supply is clean and the temperature is 21°C. Tey design for the day the cooling fails, the day the technician drops a spanner on the casing, or the day the humidity hits 99%. Ultimately, PCB design remains one of


the few areas of electronics where physical craſtsmanship still matters. It is a blend of geometry, chemistry and electrical engineering. Whether you are building a toy or a telescope, the board is the very foundation on which performance and long- term reliability depend. If that foundation is shaky, no amount of clever soſtware is going to save you, and no amount of marketing can compensate for a weak foundation.


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