Φ DFM Translator.
Paste any fab DFM/DRC error list. Get a senior-engineer explanation with severity, root cause, and the exact Altium / KiCad fix.
How Φ DFM Translator works
Fab DFM reports read like compiler errors: terse, prioritized for the operator, hostile to the designer at 11 pm on a deadline. Φ DFM ingests the raw error list, classifies each line against our taxonomy of 47 common DFM categories, and produces a human-readable explanation that includes:
- Severity — fab-stopping, will-build-but-yield-loss, or cosmetic-only.
- Root cause — what design decision usually causes this.
- Fix instructions — exact commands or tool path in Altium, KiCad, or Orcad.
- Standards citation — IPC-2221, IPC-7351, IPC-A-600 reference where applicable.
What’s behind it
Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 with a fixed system prompt loaded with PhyCircuit’s 20-year corpus of DFM resolutions. Outputs are post-checked against a deterministic rule engine for the top 15 error classes — so the LLM can’t hallucinate an obviously wrong fix.
What it doesn’t do
- It will not re-design your board for you. It tells you what to change and where.
- It does not replace a senior EE on critical-class boards (IPC 3 / 3A). For those, see PhySignoff.
- It does not handle assembly-yield (DFA) topics — that’s a separate model in development.
Cited every time
Every output ends with the IPC, JEDEC, or vendor app-note used to justify the fix. If we can’t cite it, we say “based on PhyCircuit field experience” and link to a relevant guide — never invented authority.