Electrical Rules Check (ERC) in PCB Design - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a PCB design engineer working on a new circuit board layout.

📋 Request: Your manager wants a report showing all electrical rule violations found in the latest PCB design to ensure the board meets quality standards before manufacturing.

📊 Data: You have a dataset listing all electrical nets, their connected components, pin types, and any detected ERC violations such as unconnected pins, conflicting pin types, or missing power connections.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a dashboard report summarizing the number and types of ERC violations by net and component, highlighting critical errors that must be fixed.

Sample Data

Net Name	Component	Pin	Pin Type	ERC Violation
NET1	U1	Pin1	Input	None
NET1	U2	Pin3	Output	None
NET2	U3	Pin2	Input	Unconnected Pin
NET3	U4	Pin5	Power	Missing Power Source
NET4	U5	Pin4	Output	Conflicting Pin Types
NET4	U6	Pin1	Output	Conflicting Pin Types
NET5	U7	Pin3	Input	None
NET6	U8	Pin2	Input	Unconnected Pin

1

Step 1: Load the ERC dataset into your BI tool.

Import the table with columns: Net Name, Component, Pin, Pin Type, ERC Violation.

Expected Result

Dataset loaded with 8 rows representing pins and their ERC status.

2

Step 2: Create a calculated measure to count total ERC violations.

Count of rows where ERC Violation is not 'None'.

Expected Result

Total ERC violations count = 5.

3

Step 3: Create a pivot table with Rows = ERC Violation, Values = Count of Pins.

Group by ERC Violation and count pins per violation type.

Expected Result

Pivot shows: Unconnected Pin = 2, Missing Power Source = 1, Conflicting Pin Types = 2.

4

Step 4: Create a pivot table with Rows = Net Name, Columns = ERC Violation, Values = Count of Pins.

Show ERC violations per net for detailed analysis.

Expected Result

NET2 has 1 Unconnected Pin, NET3 has 1 Missing Power Source, NET4 has 2 Conflicting Pin Types, NET6 has 1 Unconnected Pin.

5

Step 5: Build a dashboard visualization with a bar chart showing counts of each ERC violation type.

Bar chart: X-axis = ERC Violation, Y-axis = Count of Pins.

Expected Result

Bar chart clearly shows Unconnected Pin and Conflicting Pin Types as the most frequent issues.

6

Step 6: Add a table listing all nets with their ERC violations and affected components for detailed review.

Table with columns: Net Name, Component, Pin, Pin Type, ERC Violation filtered to show only violations.

Expected Result

Table lists 5 rows with violations for quick identification of problem areas.

7

Step 7: Highlight critical errors (e.g., Missing Power Source) in red on the dashboard for urgent attention.

Conditional formatting on the bar chart and table for 'Missing Power Source' violations.

Expected Result

Missing Power Source violations stand out visually for priority fixing.

Final Result

|||||||| 2

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✓There are 5 total ERC violations in the design.

✓Unconnected Pins and Conflicting Pin Types are the most common issues.

✓NET3 has a critical Missing Power Source violation that needs urgent fixing.

✓NET4 has conflicting output pins connected, which can cause circuit errors.

✓NET2 and NET6 have unconnected input pins that should be reviewed.

Bonus Challenge

Create a calculated measure to identify nets with multiple types of ERC violations and visualize them separately.

Show Hint

Use grouping and filtering to find nets appearing in more than one violation category, then create a filtered chart or table.