Best techniques for leveraging reusable circuit blocks

Reusable circuit blocks enable design teams to build new products quickly, but how do you manage a process that spans both library and design? How do you know which elements need to be managed? This paper describes techniques for leveraging certified circuits and providing continuous circuit improvement, best practices for using reusable circuit blocks, and how these blocks can be used to track critical information such as IP owner and ITAR classification.

Key library and design elements associated with reusable circuit blocks

Proper support for these critical elements is essential to a robust environment that ensures design teams have the ability to accelerate the product development process.

1. Collaboration
2. Access control
3. Versioning
4. Notifications
5. Where-used
6. Data mining

Best practices and benefits for using reusable circuit blocks

Design teams can maximize the time-to-market benefits of reusable circuit blocks by adhering to best practices such as:

• Ensuring that all team members are properly trained in the reusable circuit blocks process from both the library and design perspective
• Assigning meaningful categories and properties to the reusable blocks to ensure they can be located and properly utilized by potential consumers
• Keeping in mind that a library of certified reusable circuit blocks requires continual investment to ensure high quality and reliability. For example, utilizing data from the field can continually improve the reliability of high-use circuit blocks
• Trying to avoid the ‘not-invented-here’ syndrome. Recognize that everyone has their own design style; as such, resist the urge to recreate, change, or simply refuse to use the certified blocks lest the investment in the circuit block library quickly be lost.

Learn more about Design Reuse.