Design Office

CERN members making libraries and PCB design.
CERN members making libraries and PCB design (Image: CERN).

The Design Office provides an on-demand design service by a team of specialised engineers, including:

  • Complete PCB layout and mechanical design.
  • Management of the CERN Altium and Cadence component libraries and library search tools (Component Libraries). KiCAD libraries are managed as a conversion from the Altium libraries, by the KiCAD team
  • Preparing a project for production by finalising designs already created or partially created by the client (not preferred).
  • All designs are given an EDA number and a complete set of documentation is stored on EDMS (including all production files, 3D renders, etc).

How to work with EPR

Location and Contacts

  • Enquiries: service-electronics-design@cern.ch
  • Location: 107/R-A10

New Design Introduction

To request a new design job by the Design Office, please fill out the attached form and email it to the address at the top of this page. Include a complete copy of your project design files, either by email or via a public CERNBox or DFS link.

To create a .zip package of your project in Altium: "Project" menu --> Project Packager (or right click oon the project in the "Projects" window then choose "Package Manager").

Background (updated 25/10/2019)

  • 9 designers (including 1.5 dedicated to maintaining the Component Libraries) and 2 sourcing people
    • 4 designers with 25+ years of CERN experience, 3 with 10+ years and 2 juniors (all from an external CERN sub-contracting firm , ACTEMIUM-BS, S144 contract)
  • 3 electronics CAD packages: Altium and Cadence and KiCAD
    • ~200-250 new designs (V1) per year
    • ~400-450 jobs/year (including new designs, modifications and mechanics only)
    • ~1000 to 1200 parts/year on Altium (since 2007/2008)
    • ~200 to 300 parts/year on Cadence (25+ years old library, service insourced in 2011)
    • >4000 individual projects since the year 2000 (EDA-04xxx-V1-0, not counting board versions or execution variants).
  • 1 mechanical CAD package: !AutoCAD
    • ~70% jobs include mechanical integration (usually a front panel)
  • 1 !CAD2CAM software (!CircuitCAM)
    • For generating colour coded production plans for all jobs
  • Clients: CERN electronics designers from all departments and experiments (including high speed, RF, power converters, etc)
    • Includes CERN collaborations (INFN, !IN2P3, Desy, Fermilab, HIP, etc)