Laying It Out

Designers Salary Survey Now Open

2012-02-10T11:40:00.000-05:00

Designers, our latest salary survey is ready for your participation. Log on and help us get the best data possible!

Off to the Races: Creating Winning Finishes

2012-02-10T09:08:00.005-05:00

As promised, we are off to the races, untangling the convoluted subject of PCB surface finishes. This is a complicated subject, so bear with me as I try to break it down into bite-sized, manageable portions! This week I will discuss each available surface finish and the pros and cons of each one. Below is my version of SparkNotes for surface finishes:

PCB Surface Finish Comparison Chart

	HASL Tin/Lead	HASL (Lead-free)	ENIG	Immersion Silver	Immersion Tin	ENEPIG	Electrolytic Nickel-(Hard or Soft)Gold
RoHS Compliant	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fabrication Costs	Low	Low	Med	Med	Med	High	High
Shelf Life	1 Year	1 Year	1 Year	9-12 Months	9-12 Months	1 Year	1 Year
Themal Excursions In Assembly	Multi	Multi	Multi	Multi	Multi	Multi	Multi
Wire Bonding	No	No	Yes/No	Yes/No	No	Yes	Yes
Low Resistance/High Speed	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Soundness of Solder Joints	Excellent	Good	Good	Excellent	Good	Good	Good
Coplanarity	Poor	Good	Good	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent
Wettability	Excellent	Good	Good	Excellent	Good	Good	Good

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, many designers working with high speed digital, RF or Microwave applications are using ENIG, ENEPIG and Electrolytic Hard or Soft gold these days. From the chart above, you can see why; these finishes offer many desired properties. However, if wire bonding is required, the field is narrowed to Immersion Silver, ENEPIG, and Electrolytic gold. Here at Transline we are often asked what the difference is between hard and soft gold: quite simply it is the purity of the gold; the purer the gold, the softer the finish. Among all finishes widely available, silver has the best conductivity.

The Tradeoffs

Many engineers and designers report significant signal loss from the nickel that is plated beneath all gold applications. As the desire for greater speeds increase, many are looking for ways to eliminate, or reduce loss due to undesirable resistivity from plating finishes. In the plating process, gold cannot be plated directly over copper for a couple of reasons. First of all, some copper gets chemically dissolved into the plating tanks, tainting the gold purity and the very costly gold bath. Secondly, on the board surface the copper and gold become diffused and mingled not allowing the gold to plate over the top of the copper. Nickel, therefore, is applied over the copper to act as a barrier to prevent these two undesirable effects. It is for this reason that many are looking to ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel, Electroless Palladium, and Immersion Gold). The Palladium is far less resistive, and due to the “skin effect,” the signal travels to the outermost areas of the circuit—through the low resistive Palladium and Gold. The only downfall for this finish is that it is more costly, and may or may not take more time since most PCB suppliers do not have palladium tanks in their facilities, and rely on outside plating services.

With greater frequency, designers are turning to Immersion silver. The drawbacks to Immersion Silver include the inability for fine wire bonding and oxidation. Oxidation can be avoided or delayed by packaging with sulfur-free packaging materials and storing in temperatures less than 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Some mild oxidation can be easily cleaned away. Any unused boards should be resealed for proper storage.

Conclusion

As you can see, plating finishes offer a series of tradeoffs in cost, performance and function. Each designer needs to carefully consider the requirements that are unique to a given project or application. I hope this information helps to clarify what the general pros and cons are of the various surface finishes available.

Next Installment

Next time, I will dig a bit deeper into this subject and discuss the impact of copper smoothness and “skin effect” and how each may help you make decisions about the surface finish. Thanks to all of you who sent me emails and questions on this subject! Keep the comments and questions coming here, or to my email: judy@translinetech.com

Money Talks

2012-02-07T08:32:00.001-05:00

Designers, start checking your in-boxes for the annual PCD&F Salary Survey. In the next few days an email from UP Media will be go out containing the link to the survey.

Let me know if you don't get the survey; we really want your input.

Chatting It Up

2012-02-06T15:26:00.004-05:00

Fresh off the success of our premiere PCB Chat, we have quite a few more planned.

Tomorrow (Feb. 7), SMT process consultant Phil Zarrow will take your questions. Designers may remember Phil from some of the past PCB West and PCB East conferences, where he spoke on DfM/DfA.

Next week we will host the IPC-2581 Consortium, taking questions on the new data transfer standard.

On March 2, yours truly will discuss the IPC Apex Expo trade show.

We begin accepting questions for the chats a few days early, so don't worry if you can't make the live event. Transcripts are available in real-time and after, too.

Fall of Milan

2012-01-31T15:15:00.004-05:00

Those familiar with their Sanmina-SCI history might recall the name Milan Mandarić. Mandarić cofounded the firm along with Jure Sola in 1980.

Sola, of course, remains in charge. For his part, Mandarić moved to England, bought a soccer team, and continued to invest in new businesses.

Perhaps he should have stayed in PCBs. Mandarić is currently on trial, charged with making bribes in order to avoid business transaction taxes. (He denies the charges.)

PCB Chat Premieres

2012-01-27T09:18:00.004-05:00

We had a great premiere of PCB Chat yesterday. Eric Bogatin, the signal integrity guru, hosted the nearly two hour session, answering more than 20 questions.

The transcript can be seen here (you must be signed in to Printed Circuit University to view it; registration is free).

The next chat will be Feb. 7 with SMT process consultant Phil Zarrow. Note that you don't need to make the live session in order to ask a question: questions may be submitted in advance.

If you have recommendations for future moderators, drop me a line or post in the comments. Thanks!

Bogatin 'Signals' Chat Intent

2012-01-20T22:44:00.001-05:00

UP Media Group Inc. today announced Dr. Eric Bogatin will moderate the industry’s first “chat,” an open question/answer session using pioneering new software developed by UPMG.

The premiere event will be held Jan. 26, from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern time, at Printed Circuit University. The second chat will feature SMT consultant Phil Zarrow and takes place Feb. 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern.

“Chats” refer to moderated question/answer sessions between an expert on a particular topic and any number of parties interested in the subject. Chats are conducted online, and attendees can submit questions privately via email in advance of the chat, or while the chat is live.

Moderators review the questions and choose which will be answered. As questions are answered, they appear online in sequential fashion. After each chat session is over, the transcript is made available for on-demand viewing. Transcripts are also searchable.

PCB Chat is an environment that emulates and captures the essence of online shared group communication without all the chaos of a free-form chat room. A chat operates more like the end of a presentation, where the audience asks questions of the speaker. It is controlled and systematic, and the moderator has full control over which questions or comments to address, ensuring the chat stays on topic.”

UPMG has invested several months of development work to realize the new software platform for PCB Chat.

Dr. Bogatin is perhaps the leading expert on printed circuit board signal integrity and transmission lines. He has a bachelor’s in physics from MIT, and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Arizona. He has held senior engineering and management positions at Bell Labs, Raychem, Sun Microsystems, Ansoft and Interconnect Devices. A prolific author, Dr. Bogatin has written six books on signal integrity and interconnect design and over 200 papers, including a regular column in PCD&F. He also has taught over 6,000 engineers over the past 20 years.

PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB and CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY magazines are media partners for the event.

Getting the Right Finish, Before You Start

2012-01-20T10:11:00.003-05:00

If you are a fan of John Wooden, the celebrated UCLA coach, you will know that he had more than his share of clever sayings. My husband, who played basketball all his life, and who went to college on a full-ride scholarship—nearly worships Coach Wooden. For this reason, I have heard many of these wise and witty Wooden-isms over the years. One that comes to mind is: “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” With the speed of advancing technologies, we all have to be quick, but we cannot afford to hurry—or be hasty—putting revenue and market share opportunities at stake.

In regards to RF and microwave printed circuit boards, there seems to be some confusion about PCB finishes and their affect on the high performance requirements of these applications. Too often, when considering the available finishes and the potential impact they have on performance, many engineers become both quick and (unwittingly) hasty when they make finish choices based on information, which is conflicted, at best.

I think it’s time to clear up some of these issues, so I am going to spend the next few blog posts talking about these issues. Hopefully, by the time I’m through you will have a much clearer understanding of finishes and which to choose for your product, before you start! I will be drawing from our real-world experiences, as well as looking to experts in the substrate and RF design industries.

Today, I am just going to cover the major available finishes, and which ones seem to be preferred by those with high speed applications:

Tin (Lead free)
HASL (Hot Air Solder Leveling) Tin/Lead 63/37
ENIG (Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold)
ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel/Electroless Palladium/Immersion Gold)
Hard Gold
Soft Gold
Immersion Tin
Immersion Silver

In high-speed applications, the prevailing wisdom suggests ENIG, ENEPIG, hard gold, soft gold and immersion silver are the best choices. Gold is a natural choice due to the fact that it does not oxidize and that it is wire-bondable. Immersion silver is gaining some traction due to the excellent conductivity, but it oxidizes and it is not wire-bondable, which keeps many from choosing this option.

Unfortunately, I must leave us barely posed in the starting blocks, in regards to finishes! In two weeks, however, I will sound the starting shot, and we will be off to the races. I will discuss each finish in more detail with the pros and cons of each.

If you have specific questions you would like to submit about this subject, please post them here in the comment section or email me at: judy@translinetech.com.

I’m looking forward to tackling this complex and critical subject together!

--Judy

Socially Speaking

2012-01-18T08:44:00.001-05:00

You might say humans are predisposed to chatting. The art has taken a few twists and turns over time: in the past 50 years the back-fence gossip session gave way to party lines (for some), then to online means so popular and ubiquitous it made AOL for a time one of the most valuable companies in the US.

To be sure, the AOL-style chat rooms were (are?) fun, but ultimately more of a time-waster than a problem solver. (Unless, of course, wasting time is the problem to be solved.) But the basic concept – interacting with peers without leaving the cozy confines of your home – is transcendent. For years, we’ve been working at developing a mechanism that emulates and captures the essence of online shared group communication without all the chaos of a free-form chat room.

At long last, we think we have it.

A year ago, we acquired BeTheSignal, the brainchild of signal integrity guru Dr. Eric Bogatin, in large part for the slick web-based platform he had developed. We rolled that in to Printed Circuit University, our founder and owner Pete Waddell’s vision for a comprehensive website dedicated to training printed circuit board designers, fabricators and assemblers.

On the heels of that acquisition, we began in earnest to develop a unique “moderated chat” environment, under which our readers could engage in question/answer sessions with experts on a particular topic. The idea is simple: Chats are conducted online at a set date and time. Attendees can privately submit questions via email in advance of the chat, or through the site itself while the chat is “live.” The moderator – typically an expert in some aspect of PCB technology – can review the questions and choose which to answer. As questions are answered, they appear online in sequential fashion.

Each chat session will have a specific time length, after which a transcript will be made available for on-demand viewing. Most sessions will last for 60 to 120 minutes. We foresee chat session topics ranging from the broad to the specific. In some cases, the topic will be the driver, such as discussions of market or packaging trends, for example. In other cases, the presenter will be the attraction, because of their “name” and reputation in the industry.

UPMG plans to enlist the leading names in electronics design from around the world to hold chats in their respective regions. The emphasis in most sessions will be on the specific over the general; for example, “layout and routing of cellphone boards” would be preferred to “layout and routing.” (For our advertisers, sponsorships will be available on a one-per-chat basis.)

PCB Chat is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for tens of thousands of industry technologists to come virtually face-to-face with their peers to ask questions and share problems and solutions in real time. Needless to say, we are thrilled at this development. Visit PrintedCircuitUniversity.com for a look, and watch our websites and digital newsletter for the first scheduled chats to be revealed.

Procurement Puzzles

2012-01-12T19:11:00.007-05:00

While I'm pleased to see IPC is taking a stand in urging the US State Department to take a harder line when it comes to the potential export printed circuit board design data, it must have been cause for no small amount of angst in Bannockburn over whether IPC should be involved at all.

To bring readers up to speed, IPC seeks to make clear that ITAR covers PCB designs intended for defense equipment.

While it seems patently obvious that PCB data should be on the ITAR list, it puts IPC in the semi-awkward position. The largest PCB supplier to the US DoD is TTM Technologies, with about $170 million in defense sales through the first three quarters of last year. TTM's largest shareholder is a Chinese national. And TTM's COO is on the IPC board of directors.

So does IPC support the continued DoD drive for COTS products, keeping with the Perry Initiative of 1994, which some cite as the beginning of the end for the US PCB industry?* (COTS in effect forces prices to their lowest common denominator, which gives certain offshore suppliers a leg up on their US competitors.) Does it seek to aid the competitiveness of a major member? Or does it put the interest of the multinational members that want the lowest prices, regardless of the potential security risks? What about the potential risk to the US PCB infrastructure? Which of these priorities should take precedence?

*I don't agree, but that's a different blog.

Will ZDT Burst Foxconn Bubble?

2012-01-11T16:23:00.003-05:00

We are hearing Foxconn is concerned over the Zhen Ding Technology IPO. The ODM/EMS company supposedly fears ZDT (formerly Foxconn's in-house bare board division) could collapse and thus affect its circuit board supply. ZDT went public at the end of last month.

It would be a mighty collapse. ZDT had 2010 revenue of $1.15 billion.

PCU's Top 10 of 2011

2012-01-10T11:55:00.003-05:00

Here are the 10 most-viewed items on Printed Circuit University in 2011.

1. Essential Principles of Signal Integrity
2. Advanced Signal Integrity Design
3. High Speed Symposium
4. Differential Pair Boot Camp
5. Getting Started with SI
6. A High Speed Design Methodology
7. What Is High Speed and Why Should I Care?
8. Controlling Transmission Line Loss Boot Camp
9. High Performance Multilayer PCBs
10. Separating Myth from Reality in Signal Integrity.

As always, thanks for watching!

January Issue Now Available

2012-01-05T22:28:00.000-05:00

Hi, and Happy New Year!

Our January issue is now available. Highlights this month include a profile of APCT, the Silicon Valley board shop; a recap of Productronica (including highlights of the new fab equipment); a fabricator's take on rebuilding America’s manufacturing base; plus some great technical columns on centroid files and designing flex boards.

Here's the link to the online version, or if you'd prefer the digital version, click here.

Happy reading!

IPC-2581 Update

2011-12-15T11:59:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since I updated readers on the IPC-2581 Consortium. Here's a few tidbits:

The group of supporters continues to grow, and a couple large IT and test equipment OEMs are now considering joining. At least one announcement could be coming shortly.
The verification team, led by Ed Acheson at Cadence, is making progress. They are looking at some designs to use for test runs. At least 10 designs are expected to be validated using the members' CAD and CAM tools.
Wise Solutions expects to have an IPC-2581 viewer by January. It will likely be made available through multiple websites.
The Consortium will have a booth at the IPC Apex show in late February and PCB West in September. Members will also have a poster at Apex and will make a presentation at PCB West.

Here's a question: Should Mentor or Frontline (which Mentor owns a 50% stake in) join the IPC-2581 Consortium? Feel free to reply here or directly to me if you wish.

December Issue Now Online

2011-12-07T10:09:00.002-05:00

The December issue of PCD&F is now available.

Our cover story is a study of a novel halogen-free, phosphorus-free laminate said to be
effective for lead-free processing but without the cost penalty typically associated with such materials.

Other highlights include:

Dr. Eric Bogatin on channel-to-channel crosstalk
Lenora Toscano on surface analysis of final finishes
Considerations for shortening the flex design timeline
Via capping

And our commentary on the recent Productronica trade show.

Check it out here!

Safe in the Cloud

2011-12-06T10:49:00.000-05:00

Data are safer in the cloud.

That's what tech industry research firm Aberdeen concludes, based on findings from multiple benchmark studies on best practices in content security and security software.

Aberdeen says its analysis shows that users of cloud-based web security had substantially better results than users of on-premise web security implementations when it comes to security, compliance and reliability (and cost, by the way).

Over a 12-month span, cloud-based web security solutions users had 58% fewer malware incidents, 93% fewer audit deficiencies, 45% less security-related downtime, and 45% fewer incidents of data loss or data exposure than did their on-premise web security colleagues.

Extrapolated to the PCB design industry, the report suggests Altium's move to a cloud-based server environment isn't as fraught with security hurdles as some have posited.

Talking Data Transfer at ZDAC

2011-11-28T15:46:00.005-05:00

I had the great pleasure of attending Zuken’s ZDAC users group meeting earlier this month in San Antonio at the invitation of Steve Chidester, head of product marketing, and Amy Clements, marketing/sales manager.

Steve and Amy had asked me to present on electronics data transfer, a subject many readers know has long held my interest.

There were about 100 people who attended the event this year, slightly up over last year. All the usual Zuken folks were there: Gerhard Lipski, GM of Zuken Europe; Dave Gullickson, GM of Zuken USA; apps engineer Griff Derryberry; Humair Mandavia; Sandy Jones; and so on. I also was fortunate to meet with Zuken COO Jinya Katsube and CTO Kazuhiro Kariya.

As we've reported over at PCDanfF.com, just before ZDAC, Zuken rolled out two new tools: DesignForce, which accelerates prototyping by enabling chip-package-interconnect substrate optimization in a single, native 3D format. The CAD company also released CR-8000, its primary CAD flow. (DesignForce is embedded in CR-8000.) They spent a considerable amount of time discussing those two new tools and their ongoing product roadmap, including CR-5000 Lighting v. 14 next March, which will include a netless router. Zuken says it sees a need to move more information to upstream design, such as system and architecture. The main takeaway was that design makes up 4% of the cost of the process, but it determines 60% of the product cost.

I had about 45 people in my session. There was great interest in the topic, in part because some of the people there have been pushing their companies (RIM, Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman, to name but a few) to standardize on IPC-2581. All in all, it was well worth the time.

Also, Zuken is doing a lot in wiring harness design. This is a big market for many EMS companies (especially for military and aerospace work), and there are probably 12 to 15 companies that supply design software for wiring harness. (Some big ones are Mentor, Zuken, Eplan, Autodesk, and IGE-XAO). I didn't attend the wiring harness design sessions, but it seems the audience was fairly split between the two.

Next year’s event will be held in Newport, CA, around the same time frame (early November).

Productronica: Still the Big Player on the Block

2011-11-18T00:23:00.003-05:00

Productronica, the trade show that's so big, they can only hold it every other year, enters its final day today.

The PCB fabrication exhibits have shrunk over the years and are now down to about one hall (although exhibitors were spread over two, intermingled with large lounge areas and contract assemblers). Like the (much bigger) assembly sections, the exhibitors felt Tuesday's traffic was slow, but Wednesday and Thursday were strong. While China may have spirited away most of the production, this is still the event outside of the Pacific Rim.

Take a look at PCD&F today; our recap of the fab hall is now up.

Why DfM?

2011-11-11T10:27:00.004-05:00

Design for manufacture is the practice of designing board products that can be produced in a cost-effective manner using existing manufacturing processes and equipment. -- Ray Prasad

I’ve mentioned before that one of my early design gurus gave me a piece of advice that stayed with me throughout my design career. He said that after I finished a drawing or design, I should stand back and ask myself if I could build the product from the information I was providing. Well, to do that I had to know how the product would be built and the processes involved in manufacturing the product. Fortunately I was raised in a fabrication environment and had a fair knowledge of metal fabrication.

But when I started designing PCBs, I didn’t have the luxury of being around a PCB fab shop, where I could spend time with people who built the boards. I had to depend on other designers who had a wealth of knowledge about PCB fabrication.

Several years later, I worked for a couple companies that not only did design work but also had a board shop. Any time I had a question about something, I could walk over to the board shop and get some on-the-job schooling. The folks there would not only tell me what I needed to do to make the job more manufacturable, they’d walk me down the line and show me the whats and whys. I can’t help but think that this made me a better designer. I know that it gave me a better understanding of how the things that I was doing in a design affected every step and downstream process.

Over the years since I became involved in the magazine and conference side of PCBs, I’ve stressed the importance of DfM and the manufacturing process. We made it a significant part of the message and information in everything we produced, including the magazine, conferences and in later years, our websites. But DfM is still one of the major issues in the PCB design world. With the compartmentalization and outsourcing common today, it may be more difficult to get out to the board shop that builds our boards.

However, it is doable. Even when – for whatever reason – it isn’t feasible, designers and engineers need to know everything possible about board fabrication and assembly. So we keep running articles in the magazine and doing sessions at PCB West on DfM. We’re also working on some in-depth DFM courses for Printed Circuit University (PCU). In fact, we just loaded a video on PCU called Why DFM? that is available to all PCU members. (Membership is free.) In the video, Darren Hitchcock of Multek talks about some basic issues about which every designer should know. It is just a part of our effort to get every designer educated on DfM and other subjects relating to PCBs. Visit PCU today to see for yourself.

p.

Isola's IPO

2011-11-02T21:12:00.004-04:00

Isola is going public.

No big surprise there, except for 1) it is about six years later than I would have first thought and 2) November 2011 is not exactly the peak of the IPO craze.

Although I have known Ray Sharpe, Isola's CEO, since his days at Alpha Metals (almost two decades ago), I haven't yet spoken to him about the decision. That said, I would guess that Isola feels the next 12 months could be rocky. The company has blown the doors off so far in 2011, and perhaps they think they should strike while that iron is hot.

Moreover, if 2012 sinks, then they might need the cash from the IPO to help cover the downturn. I can't see TPG wanting to put more of its own capital in.

Isola was the largest laminate maker to be privately held. This is a big story.

The Chinese Diaspora

2011-11-02T08:28:00.004-04:00

In what might be the most fascinating labor development to come out of China this year, major ODMs are relocating workers west due to labor shortages.

One major reason companies in Shenzhen packed up their factories and moved inland (with the government's blessing) was to chase a larger supply of lower-cost workers. Shenzhen had become too expensive, and migrants from the western farms were no longer so eager to move to the Southeast coast to take jobs. The diaspora was supposed to resolve both

But today the news out of China is much different. Quanta Computer and Compal Electronics reportedly have moved employees from east to west to support factories in Chongqing City, a municipality with a population of more than 28 million (!), due to short labor supplies.

Even in a country of 1.3 billion people, cheap, effective workers apparently are hard to come by.

PCB West Call for Abstracts!

2011-10-25T11:20:00.002-04:00

We are seeking abstracts for PCB West 2012. The show takes place next September at the Santa Clara, CA, Convention Center.

We had nearly 2,000 registrants and more than 1,250 people through the door this year. It's a great show, and we would love to have your participation.

Click here for more details.

Middle America Feeling a Gut Punch

2011-10-21T09:05:00.003-04:00

The owner of printed circuit board fabricator Avanti Circuits weighs in on how it feels to be a small business owner in America today.

I don't necessarily agree with the columnist's one-dimensional response, but shop owner Jim Keaton's sentiment is both very real and very widespread.

Data Transfer in the News

2011-10-06T13:05:00.006-04:00

A couple new articles are out on the IPC-2581 and ODB++ data transfer formats.

On Oct. 2, longtime EDA journalist Richard Goering provided a well-written writeup on the "lively panel discussion" ("Data Transfer in the 21^st Century") we held during PCB West on Sept. 29. Richard does a nice job capturing the frustration of the designers present and historical give-and-take that has led us to the current situation.

And yesterday, EDN weighed in with interviews of participants from the data transfer panel held at PCB West and other key spokespersons.

Given the new support for IPC-2581 by Cadence and Zuken, among others, this issue isn't going away.

PCB West Recap: Still Great After 20 Years

2011-10-04T11:04:00.001-04:00

I'm thrilled to be reporting on PCB West 2011 because for the past few years I haven't been able to attend. I had almost forgotten what it was like to be among that rare breed of "off-grid" individualism, the Circuit Board Designer.

Lately I've become more involved in IPC standards development committees and therefore feel obligated to attend those conferences, but since few designers participate in IPC activities, PCB West felt like coming home again. If you are one of the designers working alone out there for your company, or are a lone designer supporting multiple companies, this conference is a great opportunity to meet your peers, get away from the daily grind for a few days and see what the rest of the world is doing ...

20 and counting? This was the 20th anniversery of PCB West? Seriously? How could we have gotten so old already? Now I'm feeling nostalgic ... UP Media gave out "20 Years and Still Off-Grid" t-shirts to literally everyone that registered. I thought that was a really nice thing to do. Thanks, Uncle Pete! (and while I'm thinking about it, thanks to K&F for supplying free Starbucks coffee for everyone!)

Continuing education. The conference started off with a bang as I attended a presentation by Kevin Coates where he introduced a new series of devices by Texas Instruments (well, new to me anyway) where fine pitch BGAs are being developed using a pin-out method that leaves room for fan-out vias and decoupling devices. Using these "via channel" devices may enable designers to use conventional board fabrication technology, where an HDI solution was required before. It was nice to hear additional comments by Wayne Pulliam, who works on similar efforts for AMD.

Darren Hitchcock's "Design for Manufacturing" presentation was very informative, mostly focusing on various board materials and their characteristics.

Gary Ferrari gave a great introduction to HDI technology, the various types of HDI constructions (and the materials required for them) and the use of microvias. He gave some good real-world advice and warned about some common pitfalls, and if you are moving in the direction of HDI I would strongly recommend this course. Gary has done so much work with this type of fabrication at his company (FTG), and with so much related experience in his involvement with IPC, you can pretty much take whatever he says to the bank.

Susy Webb seems like the hardest working gal in the game, and has nearly accomplished a complete curriculum for new board designers.

Starting with the basics in her introductory "Symbols and Schematics" class, and moving from "Parts and Placement" through "Routing and Finishing" and even "PCB Layer Stackups," finishing with "EMI" and "Signal Integrity" presentations. She is getting close to offering the new designer a start-to-finish introduction to the whole electronics development process.

And the good news? All of her presentations are available on the Proceedings CD.

Finally, many of you may wonder what exactly happens to your Gerber data once it leaves your CAD system, and whether that ubiquitous fabrication note "Data May Not Be Modified" really means anything at all. Well, Mike Tucker's presentation about CAM departments is a welcome addition to any PCB design program, and thanks go to Colonial Circuits (his new employer) for letting him continue to present it.

This is definitely something any board designer worth his salt should know about.

Feeling left out? I apologize to all of the presenters that I wasn't able to mention in this review. With multiple events happening in every time slot, I simply wasn't able to make it to everything this year. Fortunately, the proceedings disk contains most of the information from the conference and is available from UP Media at http://pcbwest.com/2011/proceedings/.

Exhibitionism. Although the exhibit spaces have seemed to be shrinking in size over the last decade or so, UP Media does a great job of bringing folks onto the floor. The time frame was shorter, and I suspect the exhibitors are happy enough with not having the show drag on and on for days, so that now the entire event happens in a single session! I love it.

Everyone is there for one entire day and it seemed downright festive.

The event included free lunch for everyone, bringing a lot of traffic into the space virtually the moment it opened, and ended in the evening with open bar for everyone, so even those who need a little of that old-fashioned "social lubricant" could get into the scene. The vendors I talked to seemed to be getting a lot of worthwhile leads this year, and I sensed a real note of optimism that I haven't felt lately. Hope it was a worthwhile experience for everyone who participated.

Gossip column: Happy for Happy. Many of you know Happy Holden from his long career at Hewlett Packard, many of you know him from his educational conference presentations while working with NanYa, many of you know him for his most excellent introduction to HDI, The HDI Handbook, many of you know him for his work divining the future for Mentor Graphics, and many of you know him for his "retirement" to become the CTO of Foxconn's Advanced Technology Division in Taiwan. I might have predicted that we had seen the last of Happy; that he had moved so high up the ivory tower that we would never hear from him again. Not so! Happy is moving back to the states! (hope he doesn't resent me for this announcement). Maybe we will all benefit from his presence again.

Stay tuned ... (Michigan?)

Howdy PODners! OK, how many years ago did we start talking about a Universal Library? How long ago was it that Tom Hausherr started collecting PADS library components, analyzing them, collating them, creating a consensus that eventually turned into the PCBLibrary Viewer and Calculator and Wizard?

And when these tools got linked together with the IPC-7351 Land Pattern Standard, it seemed like we were close to crossing the goal line, from then on into the future the world could have a consistent approach to creating reliable footprints for every major CAD system. So, what happened? Well, the short story is that Valor bought PCBLibraries, which seemed like a good idea since Valor was already supporting every major CAD system, but then Mentor Graphics bought Valor. Uh Oh! would Mentor support the dream? Not exactly ... they soon started stripping off the interfaces to the competitor's products, and the most recent news that is that in July they kicked Tom and his team to the curb. sad, Sad, SAD. But, looking at it another way, it could be the best thing that ever happened to propel us toward the dream of a Universal Library, because Tom and his Partners are back together and working on a monster plan for a new web-based library (which will eventually be at http://PCBpod.com). Right now they are putting together the parameters for a set of new and improved land pattern conventions that address many of the common issues. For example, why should we be screening so much silkscreen underneath components for high-volume products that can't even be seen after assembly? We are wasting a lot of ink for no reason, folks.

Anyway, that might be a minor issue for many of you and it is just an example, but the good news is that these issues are actively being discussed, hopefully to be resolved with the IPC during some meetings in October, and then these parameters will be public-domain for all to use.

And what will happen to Mentor's calculator? Who cares...!

PCU for me and you. Also, you've probably already heard, but UPMedia is putting together various educational materials which will hopefully evolve into a full curriculum under the banner "Printed Circuit University."

Registration is free, and once your account is set up you will have access to many free resources, and for a fee you can access the in-depth tutorials such as Eric Bogatin's Signal Integrity series. Check it out! You might even find some videos there from this year's conference by Kelly Dack.

The missing piece. Finally, the conference just wasn't the same without Rick Hartley, one of the educational icons of our industry. Hope you're feeling better, Rick!

Surfin' the learnin' curve,

Jack Olson

http://HowToPCB.net