Schematic Design Review Checklist

Warning. This is a work in progress.

After many years of designing circuit boards, this is my working list when doing a final review of schematics. I design boards with microcontrollers so the list is skewed to that end.

See the PCB Layout Checklist

  • Add decoupling capacitors to power pins
  • Ensure I2Cs lines have pullup resistors
  • Check and double check UART TX/RX lines for proper source/sink
  • Review MCU peripheral availability by writing firmware drivers
  • Terminate the USB shield
  • Check Sheet numbering
  • Check Copyright
  • Check Version
  • Ensure FETs are in a known state at startup (before firmware is driving them)
  • Add a test point to every node (if practical)
  • Low speed lines going off the PCB should have RF filtering (ferrites)