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How to Tackle Wearable PCB Design Hurdles?

Embedded Advisor | Sunday, December 06, 2020

Here are a few PCB standards for designers to implement while designing wearable devices.

FREMONT, CA: The recent trend spanning the medical, fitness, and mass-consumer markets- wearable technology is all set to provide innovation to various industries. However, there are technical challenges with designing PCBs for these devices. PCB designers are aware of the hurdles that must be overcome to create a proper PCB for the wearable market. Here is more about the most common challenges faced by the wearable PCB designers on how to combat these potential problems.

• Size and Shape

By their very nature, wearables are tiny. This is a significant roadblock for the PCB designer. After size, there comes the shape. To tackle this problem, designers can use board space as efficiently as possible by reducing the size of the peripheral components wherever possible. Intelligent design principles can often be made to navigate the most efficient route, but PCB designers must be careful with complex routing over several board layers.

• Board Material

Added to the complexity of designing intricate, small boards, wearables require designers to work with unusual materials. These materials require expert knowledge, and in some instances, it requires original research to find the best way of working with them. If a wearable device calls for an unusual material board, it is highly recommended to seek specialist advice. Expert advice can be incredibly useful when planning a route forward.

• Connectivity

Connectivity is at the core of most wearables, and so is modules that provide connectivity and other protocols that are essential parts of the wearable's design. This means the PCB engineer needs to find space on their board to include these modules. Thankfully, the IoT and more off-the-shelf connectivity products that are readily available today are small enough to suit wearable products.

• Power

Wearables rely on batteries or energy harvesting to power them. This means that wearable PCB designs should come with strict power consumption budgets, and engineers need to think twice before implementing the smallest of power extravagances.