The Cadstrom knowledge base

Industry data shows 90% of PCB prototypes fail on first attempt. The culprit isn't manufacturing; it's schematic-level functional errors that no DRC can catch.

Simulation tools can definitively catch the circuit behavior problems that cause expensive respins. So why do most circuits in a typical PCB design never get simulated at all?

Datasheets contain every specification you need, but critical parameters hide in footnotes, conditions tables, and cross-document interactions that routine review consistently misses.

The $44K respin average is just the purchase order. Debug time, schedule cascades, and opportunity cost routinely push the true cost of a single respin well above $70,000.

Software development closed its quality gap with automated testing pipelines. Hardware is where software was 20 years ago, and the forces driving change are now converging fast.