Schematic with clean ERC
Deliverable: A complete schematic for a supplied circuit, hierarchically organised, passing electrical rule check with every remaining warning explained.
Course
PCB Design
Board design taken to manufacture — schematic, footprints, layout, planes and Gerbers — with the checks that decide whether a fab house builds it or sends it back.
- Duration: 3 months
- Classroom
- Level: intermediate
What you will be able to do
- Capture a schematic that another engineer can review
- Create and verify footprints against a component datasheet
- Place components for signal integrity and for assembly
- Route with sensible track widths, clearances and ground planes
- Run design rule checks and interpret every violation
- Generate a Gerber and drill set a fab house will accept
Who this course is for
- Electronics engineering students, diploma holders and graduates
- Hardware developers moving from breadboard to board
- Technicians and product developers
- Ability to read a schematic is expected
Syllabus
6 modules · 3 months
Module 1. From circuit to schematic
- Schematic capture conventions and readability
- Hierarchical sheets and net labels
- Power symbols, decoupling and where it goes
- Electrical rule checks and what they catch
Module 2. Components and footprints
- Reading a package drawing from a datasheet
- Pads, courtyards and solder mask
- Creating a footprint and verifying it against the part
- Library management and part numbering
Module 3. Placement
- Placing for signal path rather than for tidiness
- Decoupling capacitors and why the distance matters
- Connectors, mounting holes and mechanical constraints
- Thermal considerations and copper for heat
Module 4. Routing
- Track width against current
- Clearance, creepage and voltage
- Vias, stitching and layer transitions
- Differential pairs and length matching, introduced
Module 5. Planes and integrity
- Ground planes and return current paths
- Splitting planes, and why it usually goes wrong
- Noise, coupling and keeping analogue away from switching
- EMC basics that affect layout
Module 6. Manufacture
- Design rule checks against a fab house capability
- Gerber, drill files and a fabrication drawing
- Assembly drawing, pick and place and bill of material
- Panelisation, tooling and cost drivers
Tools and technologies you will use
- KiCad and Altium Designer
- Component libraries and datasheets
- Design rule check and electrical rule check
- Gerber viewer
Projects you will build
Verified footprint
Deliverable: A footprint created from a datasheet package drawing, printed at 1:1 and physically checked against the real component before use.
Two-layer board
Deliverable: A routed two-layer board with a continuous ground plane, correct track widths for the currents involved, passing DRC against a stated fab capability.
Manufacturing pack
Deliverable: Gerbers, drill files, fabrication drawing, assembly drawing and BOM, checked in a Gerber viewer and reviewed as a fab house would review them.
Where this course can take you
- PCB Design Engineer
- Hardware Design Engineer
- Electronics Design Engineer
- Product Development Engineer
- Test Engineer
Duration, modes and fees
- Duration
- 3 months
- Delivery modes
- Classroom
- Fees
- Share your details for the current fee
- Fees vary by batch. Software, component samples and a Gerber review are included. Classroom mode only.
Placement assistance
Every student gets placement assistance — that is what 100% placement assistance means. It is support for all, not a job for all. We do not promise a specific salary, a specific number of interviews, or placement at any named company, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
What is included
- A place in the monthly placement drive, held every third Saturday
- The readiness programme every second Saturday — mock interviews and preparation
- CV review against the specific roles you are targeting
- Portfolio review, so your project work is presented the way a reviewer will read it
- Access to the vacancy pool employers send directly to the Samyak network
- Guidance on which roles realistically fit your background and which do not
- A place in the next drive, with coaching, if you are not selected in this one
What is not included
- Any guarantee of a job, an interview, or a particular salary
- Placement at a named or partner company
- Applying to jobs on your behalf
- Support before you have completed the course and its project work
- Visa, relocation or overseas placement assistance
The board comes back, or it does not work
Unlike almost everything else taught here, a PCB mistake costs money and weeks.
Fabrication takes a fortnight. A wrong footprint means the part will not fit and the whole run is scrap. A missing DRC check means the fab house rejects the files and you start the queue again. There is no undo.
So the course is organised around the checks — ERC, DRC, a printed footprint held against the real component, and a Gerber review before anything is sent.
Print the footprint, place the part on it
Two minutes, a sheet of paper at 1:1, and the actual component.
It is the least sophisticated technique in the entire course and it catches the single most expensive error. Every experienced hardware engineer does it, and almost every beginner learns to only after paying for a board they cannot populate.
Return current is the thing nobody sees
A schematic shows current going out. The layout decides how it gets back.
Most noise, coupling and EMC problems are a return path forced to take a long way round by a split or a gap in the ground plane. Planes get their own module because this is invisible on screen and obvious on an oscilloscope, and it is where layout stops being a drawing exercise.
Read the circuit
A layout engineer who works from the netlist alone will produce a board that passes every check and misbehaves.
Which nets are sensitive, where decoupling has to physically sit, what runs hot, what must not run beside what — none of that is in the netlist. Understanding the circuit is part of laying it out, and this course treats it that way.
Questions
PCB Design — frequently asked questions
KiCad or Altium?
The course uses both. KiCad is free and increasingly used in startups and small firms, so you can practise at home. Altium is common in established Indian hardware companies and is what many advertisements name. The design skills — placement, planes, DRC — are the same in either, and only the interface differs.
Why print a footprint on paper?
Because a wrong footprint is the most expensive mistake in board design. The board comes back from fabrication, the part does not fit, and the whole run is scrap. Printing at 1:1 and physically placing the component on it takes two minutes and catches the error while it is free.
Does track width really matter that much?
For signals, rarely. For power, very much — an undersized track carrying two amps heats, and in the worst case lifts off the board. The routing module gives you the actual relationship between width, copper weight and current, so it is a calculation rather than a guess.
Do I need to understand the circuit, or just lay it out?
You need to understand it. Where decoupling goes, which nets are sensitive, where return current flows — none of these are visible from a netlist. A layout engineer who does not read the circuit produces boards that pass DRC and behave badly, which is worse than one that fails outright.
Enquire about PCB Design
Three details is all we need. A course advisor will call you back.
Related courses
- Embedded Systems
Firmware written close to the metal — registers, interrupts, timers and buses — debugged on real hardware, because embedded bugs live where a simulator cannot show them.
- Arduino
The fastest way to make electronics actually do something — sensors, motors, displays and code — taught by building prototypes you design rather than diagrams you copy.
- VLSI and VHDL
Hardware description taught as hardware, not as programming — RTL that synthesises, testbenches that prove it, and designs that meet timing on a real FPGA.
- Electrical AutoCAD
Electrical drafting for panels and installations — schematics, layouts, cable schedules and wire numbering — built so the person commissioning the panel can trace every circuit.
Next step
Talk to a course advisor
Tell us what you want to learn and we will help you pick the right course, batch and mode.