Offshore vs US PCB layout: the comparison that survives a respin
Offshore layout is cheaper per hour. Whether it is cheaper per board depends on what the board costs to get wrong. This is the arithmetic we would use ourselves: rate, iteration latency, IP exposure and the price of a respin, applied to the kind of board you are actually building.
Total cost
Four costs, not one rate
A rate card is one input. The others are iteration latency, the cost of a respin and the exposure created by where the files sit.
Latency is easy to underestimate. Layout is a dialogue: pin swaps, decoupling placement, a connector that will not fit. Every question costs one round trip, and a twelve-hour offset turns a five-minute answer into a day. A project with ten such questions loses two weeks without anyone making a mistake.
A respin is the expensive failure. Fabrication and assembly for a dense multi-layer board, plus the schedule slip, usually dwarfs whatever the hourly difference saved. If a cheaper quote raises the probability of one respin by a few percent, the expected cost has already overtaken the saving.
Fit
Where each model genuinely fits
| Characteristic | Offshore layout | Onshore layout |
|---|---|---|
| High-speed interfaces: DDR5, PCIe Gen 5, 112G | Workable with a strong vendor, but constraint interpretation is the risk | Constraint workshop available in the same working hours |
| Schedule criticality under three weeks | Weak: timezone drag slows every iteration | Same-day answers and concurrent rebuilds when needed |
| Sensitive or regulated IP | Requires export authorization or a vetted access model | US persons, US infrastructure, US enforcement |
| ITAR-controlled design | Not without authorization; often not at all | US-person access only |
| Simple, well-specified 2- to 4-layer board | Cost-effective if the package is complete | Higher invoice, less coordination overhead |
Whichever model you choose, the handoff decides the outcome: see the What to send checklist and the NDA & IP clause set before files move. Price the alternative with the Layout cost estimator.
IP and export
Where the files sit is a legal question
A schematic and a layout database are technical data. Under ITAR (22 CFR 120-130) and the EAR (15 CFR 730 and following), releasing controlled technical data to a foreign national is a deemed export, even if the person is sitting in the United States. An offshore team, or an offshore-owned team inside the US, can therefore require an authorization you did not plan for.
Copyright is the second issue. A layout produced by an independent contractor does not automatically belong to you, and enforcing a US judgment against a foreign supplier is a separate project. A present assignment plus a confidentiality covenant with real remedies is the only reliable answer, and it is easier to obtain from a supplier inside the same jurisdiction.
FAQ
Common questions
Want this worked through on your board?
Send the stackup and interface list and we will check the layout sourcing against a real layout — before the quote is fixed, not after.