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The customer submitted Gerber files and BOM for a production quote. Our DFM review identified a critical issue: the thermal relief connections on the power MOSFETs' drain pads were designed with 4 × 0.3mm spokes — standard for signal components but inadequate for the 35A continuous current the MOSFETs carry. At production volume, this would cause thermal relief spoke burnout within 200 operating hours, requiring field replacement of all 500 units.

• Power MOSFET drain pads with 4 × 0.3mm thermal relief spokes — inadequate for 35A continuous current
• Customer had tested 10 prototypes with no failures — prototype testing did not reveal the issue
• 500-unit production order ready to place — design change would delay production by 2 weeks
• BOM contained two components with 52-week lead times — not flagged by customer's procurement team
• Gerber files had 3 copper-to-board-edge clearance violations — risk of edge delamination

We issued a DFM report identifying all four issues with annotated Gerber screenshots and IPC-2221 references. For the thermal relief issue, we recommended replacing the 4-spoke thermal relief with solid pad connections on the power MOSFET drain pads, which is standard practice for power components above 10A. We provided a corrected Gerber file with the changes applied. For the long-lead components, we identified two alternative parts with 8-week lead times and equivalent specifications. The copper-to-edge violations were corrected in the same Gerber revision.