OnTrack: The PCB Design Podcast

One of PCEA’s (Printed Circuit Engineering Association) goals is to provide accessible education, affordable to everyone in the electronics industry.

In this episode, we are fortunate to have two passionate educators in the industry, Mike Buetow and Mike Creeden. We will talk about the PCEA’s efforts to use all possible platforms to promote educational programs for design engineers.

PCEA, it's an international network of engineers, designers, fabricators, assemblers…anyone who is involved in printed circuit development. And we promote Printed Circuit Engineering as a profession. We're looking at trying to take information, new design concepts, get them down into the manufacturing side, and then also to communicate those manufacturing constraints and make sure that they are communicated back to the design side. -Mike Buetow

Watch the episode here

Show Highlights:

• Introduction to PCEA and updates on its acquisition of key assets of UP Media Group
• Mike Buetow talks about the PCB East conference reboot
• Who can benefit from PCEA’s educational initiatives?
• Mike Creeden emphasizes the importance of in-person learning. “Online is good, but it lacks some retention…but in-person learning, you retain more,” he explains.
• To collaborate, educate and inspire is what’s behind PCEA educational efforts
• PCEA is a volunteer-driven organization
• Mike Creeden will be at the https://www.ipcapexexpo.org/in San Diego
• Mike Creeden debunks misconceptions about PCB manufacturing facilities, the skills involved, the compensation, and more
• There are some issues in design education around packaging, the Insulectro booth at IPC Apex 2023 will offer valuable knowledge about packaging
• PCEA membership is free, you can register here
  • Mentorship programs are something to look forward to
  • Currently, PCEA has chapters in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and across the United States

Links and Resources:

• Visit PCEA’s website
• Connect with Mike Creeden on LinkedIn
• Connect with Mike Buetow on LinkedIn
• Watch Previous Related Episodes:
  • New Printed Circuit Engineering Course: PCE EDU
  • Mike Buetow on PCB West

 

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Expedite your transition from prototype to scale with the help of an experienced PCB broker! In this episode, a returning guest joins us to discuss everything that involves cost-effective PCB manufacturing. Greg Papandrew, a PCB buying and selling expert, gives us a comprehensive understanding of PCB cost drivers and tips on a good supply chain strategy.

Watch this episode here

Show Highlights:

• The process of buying and selling, Greg Papandrew is a PCB broker with 30 years of experience in the industry
• Greg emphasizes the importance of quoting smartly, learning when, where, and how to save money without sacrificing the PCB quality
• What is a good supply chain strategy?
• Greg dives deep into his role as a PCB broker, and his involvement in the decision making involving specs, materials, cost, and more
• Sending too much information can be problematic, and it involves the vulnerability of intellectual property
• Good communication with the PCB manufacturer and fabricator can go a long way; asking the right questions can help with the production of high-quality products with a fair pricing
• What is the anatomy of a complete data package?
  • What's in a File list and a README file 
• Greg answers, at what stage of the process does a PCB designer or manufacturer approach a PCB broker?

Links and Resources:

Connect with Greg Papandrew on LinkedIn
Watch a previous episode with Greg Panandrew: How to Buy PC Boards From a Board Shop
Watch Greg’s video: How to Avoid Self-inflicted PCB Costs
Visit DirectPCB - Better Board Buying website
Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
Visit Nexar website
Visit Octopart website

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If you look at the way people have used FPGAs, they are a miracle product in many ways. -Mark Oliver

Our guest Mark Oliver, VP of marketing at Efinix talks about the evolving role of FPGAs in the industry beyond prototyping. Mark will give us a very insightful use of FPGA as an efficient custom silicon solution and will go deep on the importance of RISC-V for processor designs.

Watch this episode here

Show Highlights:

• Introduction to Efinix, an FPGA company
  • Mark starts off by addressing the inefficient ways designers use FPGAs and how this has helped them develop a product that can be utilized from prototyping and straight to high-volume manufacturing
  • Efinix FPGAs are cost-effective, low-power, and small-form efficient for custom silicon solution
• The common FPGAs integration including the SIP (Session Initial Protocol) implementation
• FPGA market is set to explode because it is going in the same direction as the current industry growth
  • they  are designed as mid-volume production solutions with the potential for scalability
• Given that the industry is dominated by software engineers Efinix moves its course to RISC-V processor integration
  • What is RISC-V and why it is so important for processor design, specifically for FPGAs?
• FPGAs already offer great benefits and there will be more to come

Links and Resources:

• Connect with Mark Oliver on LinkedIn
• Visit Efinix website
• Read Related Articles:
  • How to Start an FPGA PCB Layout For Your Embedded System
  • Designing for the FPGA Pin Mapper
  • SoC FPGA Boasts RISC-V Processor
• Watch Related Altium Academy Videos:
  • FPGA Pins Explained!
  • FPGA and BGA PCB Power Delivery Best Practices
• Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
• Full OnTrack Podcast Library
• Altium Website

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Join us as we reflect on the best moments and the coolest guests we've had on the OnTrack podcast this year. 2012 has been a whirlwind year for the electronics industry–chip shortages, and a supply chain crunch. Altium has passed several milestones, as well as releasing an education program. And there have been some groundbreaking reports from industry groups highlighting the need for workforce training and development, and workforce shortages coming on the horizon.

Watch the episode here

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Show Highlights:

• One of Altium’s Milestone is the Altium Education Program
• In most of the episodes, the issue of automotive chips shortage comes up coupled with the passing of the PCB Act
• PCB Packaging, and production of integrated circuit substrates 
• Most requested repeat guests and new faces

Links and Resources:

• Watch all the OnTrack Podcast Episode
• Register at Altium Education for Free
• Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
• Visit Nexar website
• Visit Octopart website

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Young blood in the PCB industry, Christopher Bonsell talks about process engineering–the chemical involved in the PCB, etching and encouraging the young generation to the “cool-tech” aspects of PCB design and manufacturing.

Watch this episode through the end, and check the show notes and additional below.

Watch this episode here

Show Highlights:

• Chris Bonsell published articles on i-Connect007
• What kind of services does Chemcut offer related to PCB manufacturing and the role of a process engineer
• Chris talks about his career journey and how he landed his position in Chemcut
• Misconception about the circuit board industry, does it belong to tech industry?
• The grand challenge – the Moorse Law
• What is the Peri Etch Process?
• The lack of interest in the chemistry of circuit boards might be what’s blocking the PCB industry from moving to the next level of processing capability
• The US is 20 years behind in the PCB industry
• Is fully additive circuit board could be the big game changer in the industry?
• Workforce shortage industry – how to involve students and the younger generation to become interested in the PCB industry?
• Chris explains etching uniformity

Links and Resources:

• Connect with Christoper Bonsell on LinkedIn
• Visit Chemcut website
• Read Chris’s articles on i-Connect007
• Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
• Visit Nexar website
• Visit Octopart website

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Let’s take a glimpse into a life of a young process engineer. In this episode, our guest Paige Fiet talks about her career path in the world of PCB manufacturing. She will also share how she landed her role as the Student Liaison in the IPC.

Watch this episode through the end or listen on the go. We hope to inspire young engineers to become more motivated to jump into the PCB industry.

Show Highlights:

• Paige shares her story and her exciting career path before she landed her role as a process engineer at TTM Technologies
• Zach and Paige exchange college experiences, they talk about the courses and curriculum then and now
• Paige briefly talks about her experience in getting the role of the IPC Student Liaison
  • She also talks about how interested engineers can become involved in the IPC and encourage them to invest in a membership and attend other industry-related trade shows and conferences
  • Participating in committees can be a rewarding and fun experience
• Paige had her eyes on TTM from the very beginning. She summed up her role as a process engineer as working on improving processes' efficiency and quality on a daily basis
• Preventing mistakes before they happen is one of the challenging but exciting parts of the job
• There are so many opportunities in the industry and the next generation’s industry expert has a huge room to fill
• Manufacturing misconceptions, Zach and Paige emphasize the exciting opportunities in the PCB manufacturing Industry and encourage young engineers to explore this space

Links and Resources:

• Connect with Paige on LinkedIn
• Visit TTM Technologies website
• Watch Paige Interview: IPC Student Board Member Liaison
• Watch a related episode: IPC CEO John Mitchell on the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act

Connect with Zach on LinkedIn

Visit Nexar website

Visit Octopart website

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It’s that time again to have Altium’s VP of Marketing, Lawrence Romine, the bearer of good news when it comes to Altium Designer’s latest features. We will discuss what’s coming in Altium Designer 23 which includes multi-board and harness design capabilities.

You don’t want to miss this one. Watch through the end and be sure to check the show notes and additional resources below.

Watch this episode here

Show Highlights

• Altium Designer®’s regular and reliable updates are incomparable in the industry, stay on top of the monthly updates through the OnTrack newsletter
• There are 3 major themes to come in Altium Designer 2023
  • Multi-board systems and harness design – empower PCB designers and electrical engineers to design harnesses
  • Collaboration and teamwork
  • Make Altium Designer a necessity for every PCB designer – the world's greatest and most elegant design experience
• Code Designer, coming soon – the ability to work natively in Altium Designer and in Mcad tool of choice
• Multi-board and harness design capability, Altium Designer is fully supported through Altium 365
• It's never too soon to involve the other stakeholders in your PCB design
  • Altium 365 releases commenting capability to both bombs and draftsman documents
• New power analysis capability powered by Keysight, anybody that can design a printed circuit board can now do some power analysis
• Altium Designer users are encouraged to check out all of the extensions, especially the new power analyzer

Links and Resources:

Connect with Lawrence Romine on LinkedIn

• Stay on top of Altium Designer versions updates
• What’s new in Altium 365
• Read: Come See the New Power Analyzer by Keysight in Altium Designer 22.9
• Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
• Visit Nexar website
• Visit Octopart website

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Materials Science and how this can level up your PCB manufacturability.

In this episode, our guest Geoffrey Leeds the product manager at Insulectro talks about how material science can help solve the unique manufacturing challenges fabricators are dealing with HDI designs.

Listen through the end and check the additional resources below.

Watch this episode here

Show Highlights:

 

• Geoffrey Leed’s role as a product manager at Insulectro, a material science distributor
• What is material science and how does it relates to PCB manufacturing
• Ultra HDI designs present unique manufacturing challenges to PCB fabricators
• How are your material choices impacting your design performance?
• Geoffrey explains why having lower CTE materials could be a double-edged sword
• Perfect is the enemy of good enough! You must accept some level of tolerance when your product moves into production and goes out into the real world, It can be the material tolerance or the electrical performance
• The PCB industry has been walking in the packaging industry's footsteps for quite some time and the CHIPS act has become one of the drivers of this movement
• Would a set of alphanumerical rules help designers with HDI designs? Geoffrey answered with the phrase “curse of the easy button”
• Geoffrey recognizes IPC’s effort as the governing body in the standardization of PCB design and manufacturability- heterogeneous

Links and Resources:

 

Connect with Geoffrey Leeds on LinkedIn

Follow Insulectro on LinkedIn

Visit Insulectro’s website here

Watch Related Episode: Mike Creeden on Empowering PCB Engineers through PCE-A

 

Connect with Zach on LinkedIn

Visit Nexar website

Visit Octopart website

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This is a very interesting episode, especially for hardware engineers. Duncan Haldane, the CEO, and co-founder of JITX joins us to share a very interesting approach to PCB design. JITX is a way for hardware engineers to write code to design circuit boards.

I know you are excited to hear more! Watch this episode or listen on the go. Be sure to check out the show notes and additional resources below.

Watch this episode here

Show Highlights:

• Duncan talks about the Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and the general availability of JITX as an actual product.
• Duncan's path to engineering started in robotics
• How can an electrical engineer benefit from JITX? Duncan explained in detail
• JITX is very well integrated with Altium, it works natively with the existing designs and libraries 
• Hardware-generated code transforms the job of an engineer a little bit so that they don't have to manually look through all of the different specs for every component that they need
• JITX is a Nexar partner and uses Octoparts data, in addition, they built a different type of database that's meant for part optimization.
• Reusable expert hardware engineering knowledge is one of JITX’s ultimate goals
  • They are building full automation for boards, new kinds of routing algorithms, new kinds of placement algorithms, and checks for physical geometry
• The future is optimization
  • Zach and Duncan excitedly talked about AI, and how it can be used to drive some parameters to create new designs
• Electrical engineers’ job is secure, automation can help with the shortage, but will not replace electrical engineers’ jobs
• What the future looks like for JITX

Links and Resources:

Connect with Duncan Haldane on LinkedIn
Visit JITX website
Read JITX Launches General Availability And Announces $12M Series A From Sequoia Capital

Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
Visit Nexar website
Visit Octopart website

 

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Electronic parts shortages coupled with inflation has been affecting the electronic industry globally. Chris Cain our guest for today’s episode is a supply chain consultant and former VP at Keysight working on supply chain and supply chain products.

Chris will share with us his 37 years of experience and strategies to overcome electronic part shortages.

Watch this episode here

Show Higlights:

• Chris Cain briefly describes what supply management is, and his role as a consultant.
• Chris explains what it means to tap into the “scale for the larger ecosystem” of electronic providers
  • Find alternatives and make some design adjustments where is possible
  • Look for parts that are very scalable like memory parts and FPGAs
  • Modular approach or designing for modules may also allow designers to have some flexibility
• If you can't get the parts, you can't ship your working design–having an insight into what’s coming in the supply chain could help designers in their decision making
  • It pays to spend a little time keeping up with groups like IPC which does the groundwork of looking up the industry and what they think is coming
• Chris warns designers about silk-screened sand, he added “never pay, until you verify”
• Moving towards an open source model, Zach mentioned a recent article on All About Circuits which talks about companies transitioning their chip architectures to RISC-V to help them overcome some of these supply chain issues
• What is supply chain resilience?
  • Fuel costs push up the cost of everything else it's related to and it's essentially an inflation driver
  • Avoid buying three year supply of parts, it’s smarter to focus on design flexibility and overall sourcing flexibility
• What are the challenges involved with raw materials supplies for assembly?
• The dark scenarios, the dark side, the disaster scenarios

Links and Resources:

Connect with Christopher Cain on LinkedIn
Watch a related Podcast episode: The Benefits of Diversifying PCB Industry Supply Chain
Read Chris Cain’s Latest Article: Maximum Usage to Improve Supply Chain Resiliency

Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website

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Ben Nibali, founder and President of Aptus Design Works, with Connor Richardson, the Electrical Designer, are our guests in this episode. We will discuss how you can plan the cost and lead times to successfully launch your product in the market.

Ben and Connor share some excellent advice for designers and companies to streamline their product development process from prototyping to manufacturing.

 

Show Highlights:

• Aptus is a design and engineering company, and they’ve been around for about 15 years
  • They handle initial concept development, mechanical development, controls, and mechanical prototyping and help their clients through the launching and manufacturing of their products
• Expecting and avoiding pitfalls comes with experience; in addition, working with trusted vendors and suppliers is huge when honoring set schedules or timeline
• The natural state of every project is over budget and behind schedule. Ben Nibali stresses the importance of effort and discipline to have complete control of the process  and deliver on time
• Some unrealistic expectations by Aptus’s clients typically involve defying the law of physics
  • Other challenges include expectations from not knowing the process and cost expectations based on the higher volume of current products that really can’t be met in a US market-based launch scenario
  • Clients need to realize that there is a proper “cost of engineering”
• There are also misconceptions about 3D printing–in reality, it takes days to print 3D objects
  • You can’t have fast, cheap, and high quality at the same time
• Software guys may often misunderstand that modifications on hardware  are not as simple to execute as they will be on software
  • The “minimum viable product” is a great idea and works exceptionally well in software because you can add, modify, change, and grow something slowly after you deploy. In hardware, it is an entirely different cost structure to make changes once you start making anything physical. 
• “Proof of concept” is often neglected when companies want to launch their products immediately
• Connor Richardson shares the most complex and fun project they did at Aptus
  • Another exciting prototype they created is the cow-milking robot
• Ben gives designers and companies a piece of advice on how to plan cost and lead times when launching their products
  • The most important factor is market research, understanding what this thing that we're going to sell is? How are we going to sell it? Who's going to buy it? What features matter? 
  • The better the client understands the world they're going to try to sell into and how they're going to sell it, the more valuable our work will be and the higher likelihood that they'll make a profit
• Creating high-quality products could mean years of planning

Links and Resources:

Connect with Ben Nibali on LinkedIn
Connect with Connor Richardson on LinkedIn
Visit Aptus Design Works website
Watch How APTUS Designworks uses Altium 365 and Altimade to reduce cost and move more quickly
Altium Story presents Breaking down the barriers to progress - APTUS Designworks

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Matt Kelly is the  Chief Technologist at IPC. In this episode we will discuss all about the technological challenges the industry is facing. Matt will help us understand the “ecosystem” involving the semiconductor industry, advanced packaging, and IC substrates.

Watch this episode here

OR listen on the go!

Check the show notes and additional resources below.

Show Highlights:

• Matt Kelly’s role as the Chief Technologist at IPC
• The Moore's Law is continuing, but it is economically becoming difficult to maintain, this has become the driving force behind heterogeneous integration 
• What does the CHIPS Act really mean for manufacturers?
• Production of semiconductors is an expensive business–one fabrication infrastructure can cost an average of 20 billion dollars
• Matt stresses the need in the industry to use, and understand the “ecosystem” involving the semiconductor industry, advanced packaging, and IC substrates
• The US has a 20-year market leader, knowhow gap, weak sub-tier supply, skilled workforce shortage, and lack of raw materials
• The industry needs to spend time looking at the big picture, take the bigger messages, and convert them into actual change
• A significant shift in the workforce–PCB designers are a scarce commodity. In the near future, printed circuit board designers may have to double as IC substrate designers
• The global supply chain is alive and well, a change to a regional and global mindset is necessary to overcome most of the industry challenges
  • Matt shares the same scenario with produce shoppers in the summertime, you try to buy your fresh fruits and vegetables locally from your local farmers or whatever, but yet you still go to the grocery store
• IPC’s focus is on increasing workforce skills development in the areas of design and assembly
  • IPC is sponsoring the Advanced Packaging Symposium, Building the Substrate and Packaging Assembly Ecosystem in Washington, DC, on October 11th and 12th

Links and Resources:

Follow Matt Kelly on LinkedIn
Learn more about the IPC’s Advanced Packaging Symposium, Building the Substrate and Packaging Assembly Ecosystem
Watch related podcast episode:
    The Benefits of Diversifying PCB Industry Supply Chain
    IPC CEO John Mitchell on the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act
    What is in the PCB Bill?
Connect with Zach on LinkedIn

Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website

 

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Our guest Phil Marcoux is very well-known in the advanced electronic packaging community and currently working as a business mentor in the electronics industry. 

Phil is labeled as the father of SMT by the IPC. He is a Charter member of SMT Council, granted the IPC President's Award, past owner of over 40 integrated circuit packaging and camera module-related patents, and consultant on numerous heterogeneous designs and standards, just to name a few of his excellent achievements.

Today we will tackle the pros and cons of heterogeneous electronic assemblies and what we can do as an industry to move forward with it.

Show Highlights:

• Learn about Phil Marcoux and his upcoming panel discussion at PCB West 
  • The panel will discuss “How Heterogeneous Integration Affects the PCB Industry.”
  • Phil is looking forward to promoting PCEA and the need to embrace education
• PCB designers must recognize what compromises they will have to make to utilize that chiplet
  • One of the challenges is to encourage companies to work together and to agree to a standardized chiplet format
• The funding from the federal government may motivate companies to embrace the heterogeneous type of format and the chiplet format.
• Many defense contractors, military products, and advanced electronic products are now rapidly depending on the need for heterogeneous designs
  • Other significant drivers in the market include medical devices, telecommunications, and 5G products
• Most design software are fully capable of handling heterogeneous integration
  • PCB designers can very quickly jump in. Many structures in a printed circuit board, especially in HDI designs, are also used in advanced packages.

Links and Resources:

• Follow Phil Marcoux on LinkedIn
• Learn more about PCB West 2022
• Visit PCEA website
• Full OnTrack Podcast Library
• Altium Website

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In this episode, our guest Joe Dickson, tells us about the cutting-edge technology implemented in advanced packaging at Wus Printed Circuit International.  

Watch the episode here

Show Highlights:

• Joe Dickson talks about what they do at Wus, a printed circuit manufacturing company
  • He shares about their efforts to bring PCB technologies farther up by introducing advanced packaging options
  • He briefly describes what printed circuit-like materials are, also known as the vertical interposers or PCIe
• Zach explains how a pre-packaged chip can be mounted on a board
• What are the reliability and signal integrity challenges that come with assembling different packages on a board
  • Off-the-board solutions start to become more and more desirable 
• The flexibility of design and components is what driving the market to use more integrated packaging
• Speed is everything! When will the industry move on from copper and go to optical? 
• Knowing what's going on in simulations is very important; it opens opportunities to try new things
• Joe explains a way of using Faraday cages with cable connections on the surface
• Examples of the large market using the PCIe method are Xilinx and NVIDIA
• How far is silicon photonics from becoming mainstream as an interconnect technology?
• Standardazion versus innovation
• The future of PCB assembly is hybrid. Some will use the off-shelf, best-in-class products from Intel, AMB, NVIDIA, Xilinx, and get creative with them. 

Links and Resources:

• Connect with Joe Dickson on LinkedIn
• Visit Wus Printed Circuit International website
• Watch the related episode:
  • Eliminating Nuances in the PCB Manufacturing Processes with Amit Bahl of Sierra Circuits PCB
• Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
• Full OnTrack Podcast Library
• Altium Website

 

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Performance and reliability are big in the automotive industry, especially now that electronically powered and automated vehicles are starting to become more popular.

In this episode, we will learn so much about automotive electronics and the reliability of electronics systems that goes in the vehicle. Our guest Lenora Clark, the director of autonomous driving and safety technology at ESI automotive will share with us the importance of material choices for your PCB can affect the reliability and performance of your vehicle’s system design.

Show Highlights:

• • Lenora is Chemist by education. She joined MacDermid, now MacDermid Alpha Electronic Solutions, as a bench top chemist, developing chemicals for PCB manufacturers
    • Her focus was on surface finishing helping PCB fabricator improve their process from a chemical standpoint to enhance the performance and reliability of PCBs
    • From working with surface finishing, she worked her way up and became the project manager, product line director for surface finishing, and later the Director of OEMs
    • She is now a director at ESI automotive
  • Chips don’t float, they are anchored to a PCB to work
  • Lenora briefly described her role and emphasis on enhanced reliability to meet the end users' needs
  • There is so much happening in the automotive space towards reinventing themselves and keeping up with the amount of innovation that's happening right now
    • One of the challenges in the industry is extreme miniaturization
    • Miniaturization is not just the board itself and the packaging but also feature density
    • Other than the heat, electromagnetic shielding is also a concern with enclosure designs
  • Lenora emphasizes that her current role is to make recommendations based on a material perspective, both for liability and for enhanced function
  • ECUs (Electronic control unit) manages data transmission between different parts of the vehicle

• I think the future of the vehicle architecture is not completely defined yet. I do think it will be less complex than what we see today - Lenora Clark
• Collaborators like Mobileeye by Intel are working with makers to bring an entire system where there are different, sensors and a central computing unit to help make the decision – autonomous driving

Links and Resources:

Connect with Lenora Clark on LinkedIn

Visit ESI Auto website

Related Podcast Episode:

How to Select the Best Surface Finish for your PCB

Electronics Manufacturability and Reliability

 

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Altium Website

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Let’s talk about Electronics reliability with the QA guru Cheryl Tulkoff.

In this episode Cheryl and I will talk about risk assessment, planning for not only success but also a failure, and understanding the difference between quality and reliability. This discussion is going to be very informative for every PCB designer who wants to get ahead of their game. Watch through the end, and make sure to check the additional resources below.

Watch this episode here

Show Highlights:

• Cheryl shares her rewarding career experience in the electronics industry
  • She worked at IBM where she was immersed in electronic manufacturing from beginning to end
  • She also worked at DfR Solutions and National Instruments where she learned all the skills and knowledge in electronics manufacturability, quality & reliability consulting
• To produce a successful electronic product it is important to have the awareness to resolve every problem, from the chip level, board level, system level, and the environment level
• Cheryl explains why unique or non-aligned standards exist in the industry – no one size fits all
• A great piece of advice for all PCB designers is to know what you are designing and who you are designing it for, look at the risks, and then manage them appropriately
• Planning for success may also include celebrating failures. Budget for failure analysis is often disregarded due to the “success-driven roadmap” mentality
• Failure should be part of design management
• Cheryl and Zach talk about the “Startup Culture”
• Software reliability and hardware reliability go hand in hand
• What rate of failure is tolerable? Defining what is quality and reliability separately for the product you are designing
• Manufacturers can not ensure reliability for you
• Cheryl shares her experience being involved in litigation as an expert witness
• Redundancy practices in the industry, is it typical?
• What can designers do to mitigate failures?
  • Understanding what you are designing and who you are designing it for
  • Collect as much feedback as possible – from users, industry experts, and professional organizations

Links and Resources:

• Connect with Cheryl Tulkoff on LinkedIn
• Read Cheryl Tulkoff articles on Research Gate
• Checkout Cheryl Tulkoff book Design for Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing
• Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
• Full OnTrack Podcast Library
• Altium Website

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You would not want to miss this informative, knowledge-packed conversation with Dr. Kunal Shah. Dr, Kunal generously gives us all a crash course on surface finishes and understanding different types of materials that could affect signal integrity, reliability and electronic shelf life. He will also tackle in detail the pros and cons of various types of nickel-free finishes.

Watch this podcast episode now or listen on the go. Make sure to check the notes and additional resources below.

Show Highlights:

• PCB Designers must be knowledgeable of various manufacturing processes and materials
• One of the things that makes liloTree unique is its innovation in materials development and ensuring better and robust reliability of the electronic assembly
  • liloTree offers eco-friendly solutions (organic surface finishes) that enhance reliability and offer better performance in terms of signal integrity
• Dr. Kunal shares his background and how he founded liloTree
• Manufacturers are trying to find alternatives for ENIG (Electroless nickel immersion gold) due to nickel causing signal integrity loss in the high-frequency application
• There are several nickel-free surface finish, but designers must understand selection criteria – pros and cons of each types of materials
  • immersion tin does have higher insertion loss
  • OSP (organic solderability preservatives) is an organic-based surface finish. It provides good signal integrity, but has low shelf life issues
  • Hard Gold has good signal integrity but very costly
  • Electro-less palladium, immersion gold or autocatalytic gold it includes cumbersome process and need to babysit it
• A PCB must have both good signal integrity, great performance, and extended shelf life
  • Designers must realize the impact of the supply chain issues on the PCB manufacturing life cycle
  • Shelf life is critical. Boards are getting manufactured in one part of the world and it may take a few months before they get assembled in another side of the world
• LiloTree has developed the best nickel-free option, specifically designed from a signal integrity perspective, reliability perspective, and cost effectiveness perspective
• Another challenge of nickel based finishes is overplating and the skip plating in the PCB pads that could lead to micron scale level failures
• The liloTree nickel free solution includes a “barrier layer” which has multiple benefits including slower growth of intermetallics, delaying of natural embrittlement and eventually an extended shelf life
• How to overcome multiple reflow issues?
• Dr. Kunal explains the different ways they offer their solution to the market
  • They offer their prototype lab where manufacturers and OEM can apply liloTree technology to evaluate and test it
  • PCB manufacturer from OEM or assemblies feedback, the solution will be shipped directly to the manufacturer and set it up in their existing plating line
  • Sending the boards to liloTree’s in-house plating line

Links and Resources:

Connect with Dr. Kunal Shah on LinkedIn
Visit liloTree website
Connect with Zach on LinkedIn

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Altium Website

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In this episode, Representative Moore, one of the co-sponsors of H.R.7677, the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act of 2022, will give us brief but insightful details about the bill.

Show Highlights:

• Representative Blake Moore explains the reasons behind the efforts to push the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act of 2022
• Rep. Moore briefly touches on the topic of material sourcing and potential environmental challenges 
  • A potential roadblock concerning raw materials is overcoming challenges coming from the energy and commerce committee
• What is the ideal market share for the US in the PCB manufacturing industry?
• The CHIPS Act and defining industrial policy
• Initiatives in developing a qualified workforce that can fill the new manufacturing jobs and all of the other jobs that come along with it to support the industry
• Sign up for the Electronic Design to Delivery Index to help guide you through supply chain turmoil

Links and Resources:

Sign up for the Electronic Design to Delivery Index
Learn more about the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act of 2022
Learn more about the CHIPS Act
Watch the related episodes: 
    Data Security, 5G and Onshore PCB Manufacturing with Dr. Rob Spalding
    IPC CEO John Mitchell on the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act
    The Benefits of Diversifying PCB Industry Supply Chain

Connect with Zach on LinkedIn

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The business development manager of J.A.M.E.S., Alexandre Schafer talks about the organization’s vision to push the Additively Manufactured Electronic technology to become more accessible to the industry.

 

Show Highlights:

• What is J.A.M.E.S. and how did Alexandre become involved in the organization?
  • J.A.M.E.S (Jetted Additively Manufactured Electronic Sources) is an online community of professionals, stake holder, manufacturers who share the same vision of accelerating the AME technology
  • Alexadre’s AHA moment was seeing a drone’s PCB created through AME process
  • The current technology readiness level is currently between experimental and demonstration pilot phase
• Introducing new technology to the industry has it’s challenges:
  • Influencing engineers’ mindset
  • Which design tool to use? In an ideal world a tool with both ECAD and MCAD design capabilities is necessary–a fully working 3D auto router will be amazing
  • Design standards are inexistent at the moment
• On another note, the lack of design standards opens up to wider creative possibilities. Standardation is the enemy of freedom -Zach Peterson
• Moving forward to future plans: Scaling up, manufacturing of the equipments and creation of additive process design rules
• Availability of resources and current efforts to educate PCB designers through AME Academy

Links and Resources:

Follow J.A.M.E.S on LinkedIn

Connect with Alexandre Schafer on LinkedIn

Access Register to AME Academy

Visit J.A.M.E.S website

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We are very delighted to have Dr. Min Zhang in this episode. Min is an independent EMC consultant based in the UK. Today, we'll be talking about EMC, both on board and off the board. It will be a very interesting discussion because we will look a little bit deeper at the system level of the board.

Show Highlights:

• Zach met Min at EMCLive 2021
• Let’s hear more about Min’s background and his early exposure to EMI issues
  • Earlier in his career, he worked with big companies as a motor drive engineer and power electronics design engineer for 10 years
  • He started his engineering consulting business, Mach One Design EMC Consultants 2 years ago
  • His first experience dealing with EMI issues was at the university while doing research for his PhD
• The lack of education in the university in regards to EMI issues is one of the reasons that sparked Min’s interest in EMI
  • The university he went to specializes in motor and power converter design, but did not offer any solutions in fixing the EMI issues
  • Min recalls being fascinated by his first time seeing an EMI diagnosis kit composed of the spectrum analyzer, lots of ferrites, and cable shooting copper tape in a suitcase
  • It was his first time seeing a step-by-step diagnosis and troubleshooting EMI issues - checking the grounding, checking the bonding, and applying ferrites at the right place, performed by his friend’s father who was then a principal engineer in the European Space Agency
• Min’s recommendation to design engineers solving EMI issues is to understand the fundamentals – “only when you understand the fundamentals, understand the basics, and the first principle, then you can really design a system” - Min Zhang
• What happens when EMI problems exist off the board and they interfere with the system or create so much noise that the system is never going to pass EMC?
  • Min answers by recommending Rick Hartley's famous YouTube video about grounding
  • He continues with his answer with an example involving a three-phase brushless DC motor drive
• How to deal with cables connected to another system that is outside of the shielding?
  • Shielding is a good solution, but understanding fundamentals are necessary to avoid increased cost, weight, and also the bending ratio would be affected
• Min shares a recent video he did with Robert Feranec which discusses the topic of EMI troubleshooting on immunity
• 70% of the EMI issues are somehow related to resonance
  • For high-speed design, PCB designers really need to understand how the wave propagates
• Ferrite is not a 100% inductive component
• Min recommends the book by Douglas Smith – High Frequency Measurements and Noise in Electronic Circuits which focuses on the test and measurements in terms of high-speed design
• Other experts to learn from in terms of EMI troubleshooting and high speed designs are Eric Bogatin, Steve Sandler and Heidi Barnes

Links and Resources:

Learn more about Min Zhang and his company Mach One Design EMC Consultants
Watch Min’s Keynote at EMCLive 2021
Watch How a Few Components Make a Big Difference in EMC/EMI with Min and Robert Feranec 
Read Min Zhang’s article on SI Journal
Great book recommendation: High Frequency Measurements and Noise in Electronic Circuits
Watch Rick Hartley's famous YouTube video about grounding
Watch previous episodes with EMI and High-speed experts:
    Eric Bogatin Debunks Common Misconceptions About Transmission Lines
    Secrets of PCB Optimization with Rick Hartley
    Being Right Matters! When, Why and What to Simulate with Steve Sandler
    Power Integrity and Simulations with Heidi Barnes

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