Syllabus

What you can expect from the class, and from us. Last updated 4 Jan 2023.

Our Mission

Welcome!

We’re glad you’re here, and we’re really excited that you want to learn the fundamentals of printed circuit board (PCB) design. Some quick things about what you’re in for:

This class is project-focused, and you will build a PCB in this class. This includes schematic capture, board layout, assembly, and debugging to get it working. Depending on the track you choose to take through the class, we’ll pay for your PCBs and the components on them - there’s no cost to you.

We’ll do this by teaching you each step of the process in lecture, letting you try your hand at it, and then following up on your work with a design review (DR). DRs are short 15-20 minute sessions where we sit with you and go over your design, and provide feedback before moving onto the next step. You’ll have three of these - one after you make your schematic, one after you make your board layout, and one before you send them to the fab house for fabrication.

This class is open to all skill levels, and you don’t need previous electrical design experience! We’ve got a few different ways to progress through the class, and your background will probably dictate which one you choose. More on each of the situations each one caters towards below:

Tracks

  • Track 1: You’ve never laid out a PCB, or you want to get extra practice. Our role here is to teach you everything you need to know and get you a super cool project to take home! We’ll be providing the project for you (a bluetooth speaker), so that you don’t have to learn circuit design - that’s more the domain of 6.2000/2.678, and we can’t fit that into an IAP class. We’ll still give you a rundown on how the speaker works so that you understand it enough to debug it.

  • Track 2: You’ve laid out PCBs but want to learn more advanced things such as impedance matching, thermal design, high current/high power design, or >4 layer design. Our role here is to help shepherd your project ideas into a design that holds water, and will probably work when you put it together. We can help with the circuit design if you’d like, but we’ll mostly be looking over your boards. We’re pretty resource constrained so won’t be able to sponsor your project monetairily, but we’ll give you more extensive support in the form of longer, more thorough design reviews.

  • Track 3: You have extensive PCB design experience and you want to use class funds to make a super cool project for research or yourself! This includes things like flexible PCBs, RF, or anything else that we don’t really know a whole lot about. Our role here will be to direct you to the resources that we know, and to fund a reasonably-priced project of your choosing that you can complete over IAP. Also if you’re at this stage, we’d like you to help LA the class - this is paid, so you’ll get your project reimbursed and be paid for your time helping run the class. If this sounds interesting, reach out to us!

How Do I Get Help?

If you’re feeling stuck, we’ve got a few ways for you to reach out for help! The course staff are below, feel free to message us individually or all at once at yaypcbs@mit.edu

We’ve also got a class Piazza! The link to join is here, and definitely feel free to answer each other’s questions if you think you can help.

Lastly, all the class materials are meant to be referenceable, so they’re fully open and released under a CC license. If there’s something you feel is missing, let us know!

Software

We’ll be using Altium Designer. It’s proprietary software, but it has free educational licenses. Nothing we do here will be terribly specific to Altium - once you’ve taken this class you’ll be pick up open-source tools like KiCad pretty easily, all the fundamentals are the same.

Remember, our goal here is to teach you design and debugging. These are essential skills for being a good engineer. We’ll focus on concepts, processes, methods for identifying and solving problems, and asking good questions. The core of design is in the details you choose to pay attention to, the software you use is just how you express that digitally.

Where do I go?

Lectures are MWF from 1-2:30pm in 34-101, starting on 9 Jan and ending on 3 Feb. These will be recorded and available on the course website within a day or so after the lecture.

We’ll also use the EECS teaching labs in 38-500/600 for PCB assembly (soldering) and office hours. We’ll have design reviews in the electronics lab in the 6C mezzanine, right next to Metropolis. We can also put together virtual DRs/office hours too in extenuating circumstances by request - or if we get tired of being in lab :)

Check the course schedule for the most up-to-date office hours schedule!

Grading

Truthfully we’re not going to be particuarly concerned about grading - we aren’t going to require a working board at the end of IAP, and all we ask is that you put in consistent effort and try to learn! We want to get you excited about something we care a lot about, and if you put in the work you’ll be in good shape.

That said getting a good design will take a fair bit of time, so this class counts for 6 units of academic credit.

Required Safety Training

We’ll be working with low-voltage electronics in this class, and doing some soldering at high temperatures. You’ll need to complete the Electrical Safety Awareness training that’s available in the Learning Center on atlas.mit.edu.

Special Thank-You’s

A huge thank you goes out to the following departments + individuals who made this course happen. And special friends of ours as well.

  • Our AMAZING LA’s Will, Jesse, + Winnie. Could NOT have done it without you all!
  • Professor J. Kim Vandiver, Amy Fitzgerald, Sandra J. Lipnoski, Lee Zamir, Dr. Jim Bales, + the MIT Edgerton Center for providing funding and publicity and helping make this a reality.
  • To Professor Sangbae Kim, for supporting me in everything I do. For believing in what we’re trying to do, and for spending your own time trying to build a better MIT.
  • Emma Dunn, + the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering for believing in our vision and understanding the importance of hands-on learning. Your relentless support of your students is an inspiration to us every day.
  • Dr. Joe Steinmeyer and Course 6 for the physical space to teach the course in, and for the support for the course since day one.
  • The EDS Lab Staff for the tools used in the labs, and dutifully supplying parts and good company in equal measure.
  • Diane Brancazio, Justin Schmidt, and Ed Moriarty for their amazing teaching style and friendship.
  • The faculty of MIT Electrical Engineering and MIT RLE who spend their time showing students that hardware design is NOT dead despite the forces against them. It’s beautiful, and amazing, and so so so inspirational.
  • To all the members of MIT Solar Car + MIT FSAE who taught us quite literally everything we know about EE. To all the nights we cried together debugging boards, and all the highs we felt when we saw the cars run. To Rod Bayliss, Elijah-Stanger Jones, Suzanne O’Meara, and Brandon John, y’all are still my heros. To Caroline, Cece, Francis, Quang, and Diane, thanks for showing me not just the power of good engineering, but the power of empathy, and compassion, and for teaching me what leadership truly means.
  • To the members of the MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab, for making Academia a solidly good time. And for helping me at every step as I try to become a better engineer and researcher.
  • To Professor Alex Slocum + Professor Maria Yang, for being an inspiration for many of my core design principals, and methods.
  • To the Folks @ D-Lab, thanks for inspiring me to save the world <3.
  • To Gene, who taught me everything that MIT couldn’t, and that took me getting an education here to fully appreciate.
  • To Andreana + Professor Pelegri, for believing in me way back before I believed in myself. Don’t know where I’d be without you guys.