Many times when we design a PCB we might get stuck with PCB board real estate shortages. Of course we can overcome it many times by increasing the number of layers, subsequently making it more complex and expensive.
But, a few times the size of the components and the board size availability is just not balanced. For example, I have a board of 10×10 (centimeters).
I calculated the area occupied by all the components (including passives) and I come up with a number. The available area is 100 cm2. What should be an ideal total component size (total area of all components)? Is there a rule of thumb as such to get away with?
Like if the total component size area is 'x' then a minimal of 15-20% extra board space is required more or so. This argument would be helpful in tackling customers who keep asking for smaller PCBs to fit their enclosures.
I understand that this could be very vague, but I would appreciate any points you can kindly share please.
Best Answer
I think connection density (number of connections divided by PCB area) is used as proxy metric. There is of course no general rule for what density is the most appropriate, but you can occasionally find statistics for certain types of electronics, and compare yours with that (if appropriate, e.g. don't compare an ATX power supply with a mobile phone). An example from Economics of Electronic Design, Manufacture and Test (1994):