ABOUT Z-ZERO

INNOVATIVE PCB STACKUP DESIGN

Z-zero offers a comprehensive software solution to bridge the gap between hardware design teams and their PCB fabricators. Designed to look and feel like a spreadsheet, Z-zero’s software enables hardware design teams to design, validate and automate their PCB design with detailed features for impedance and loss simulation.

THE GAP

Years ago, Bill recognized a serious gap in PCB design − requiring significant manual intervention, which takes time and introduces an opportunity for errors, which often compromises product performance, as well as introducing costly project delays and rework.

Bill saw engineers and fabricators manually entering stackup descriptions into spreadsheets; and he saw signal integrity (SI) specialists re-entering the stackup information into SI simulators. This is the gap.

Engineers often build their own stackup spreadsheets using Dk and Df values from datasheets, while ignoring resin content and frequency. Then they rely on third-party PCB fabricators to resolve final-implementation details with stackup and materials long after simulations were performed − often with data that differs from the as-fabricated printed-circuit board.

Information is sometimes lost between spreadsheets and simulators. Critical material details, important to laminate manufacturers and PCB fabricators, are often overlooked by hardware engineers and SI specialists because the information is in multiple places using different software tools.

SOLUTION

Z-zero bridges this gap and automates information transfer between the functions (CAD design, hardware engineers, SI specialists and PCB fabricators in the PCB design, validation and new product introduction (NPI) workflow.

FOUNDER: Bill Hargin

With 25 years of experience in PCB design, laminate selection, and signal integrity analysis, Bill was a pioneer with HyperLynx, the most widely used signal integrity software solution in the world.

“Typically, engineers roll their own stackups using spreadsheets-grabbing Dk and Df values from datasheets for simulations-ignoring resin content and frequency … Or relying heavily on third party fabricators to resolve final-implementation details with stackup and materials long after SI simulations were performed.

“Certainly, known tools have been around for years in this space, but no software on the market accessibly considered the major (known primarily by fabricators) issues surrounding stackup design combined with an accurate field solver and loss-planning environment, along with a complete dielectric materials library-and seamless interfaces to popular PCB signal integrity software-bundled in a powerful, affordably priced, easy-to-use tool … That’s how Z-planner was born.”

– Bill Hargin, Founder & Chief Everything Officer at Z-zero

PUBLICATIONS

Author/co-author of dozens and dozens of articles on high-speed design … Hundreds of webinars, seminars, and workshops-including a “Fundamentals of High-Speed Design” course that has been taken by over 10,000 engineers in more than 30 different countries.

SPEAKER & PANELIST

“Survival in the world of high-speed design requires accurate prediction of electrical performance based on design and material properties. Z-zero’s focus on accurately modeling the detailed elements of PCB stackups is a valuable contribution to the industry.”

Dr. Eric Bogatin
Industry pioneer, founder of BeTheSignal, and author of the popular text, “Signal and Power Integrity – Simplified,” “Principles of Power Integrity for PDN Design – Simplified: Robust and Cost Effective Design for High Speed Digital Products,” and “Bogatin’s Practical Guide to Transmission Line Design and Characterization for Signal Integrity Applications.”

“In our PCB design flow, we have very strict electrical and mechanical requirements that we need to manage across 20+ layers for most designs. Until now, we haven’t found a software solution that was able to capture the layer of detail that we require in our design process. We’ve found that Z-zero software reduces the time it takes us to specify and validate fabricator stackups. We can evaluate three different stackups in an hour, rather than a day, and it significantly reduces the amount of back-and-forth communication required with our fabricators and NPI team.”Dr. Jayaprakash Balachandran
Senior Technical Leader, Signal Integrity Engineering, Cisco