Local Chapter Reports

ATLANTA
Next meeting: February 
We have a lot to report ending this year. We held our last meeting of the millennium on Wednesday Dec. 15. The meeting was at the Scientific Atlanta. The next meeting will be early February. 

We elected new officers for 2000. Congratulations, and best wishes for the new year. Elected were: president: Ewart Speer, Scientific Atlanta; vice president: Ray Kuwalick, Home Wireless; treasurer: Mary Nevins, LXE; secretary/editor: TBA.
     
Following chapter business, we had a formal presentation by John Sabo of Rockwell Automation/Allen Bradley, chairman of the IPC Designers Council. He presented geometrical dimensioning and tolerancing.
     
Just a personal congratulations to all new CIDs from the Atlanta Chapter. Overall, the highest score for all test takers on this date was 93 percent, achieved by two who attended the two-day, IPC-sponsored workshop. (They tied for the Top Dog award.  All the rest of us are just Porch Dogs.) All who attended the IPC workshop passed the exam. 

The Atlanta Chapter Designers Council study group had an average attendance of 12 people. Sabo commented that our study group did very well and compared our group with a study group who studied for approximately two years. Congratulations again; bring on the Advanced Test.

AUSTRALASIAN 
Dates for monthly meetings in Melbourne alternate between Wednesday (odd months) and Thursday (even months) at 6:30 p.m. at the SMCBA offices. Further details on all programs are at www.smcba.asn.au.

CASCADE (Seattle)
Next meeting: Jan. 13
Topic: High speed design
Location: Prototron Circuits (Redmond)
Doug Brooks from UltraCAD Design Inc. (www.ultracad.com) will talk on high speed design. The meeting will be held at Prototron Circuits (www.prototron.com ). Social hour: 6 p.m. to 7; speaker: 7 to 8:50; wrapup: 8:50 to 9. For more information contact Cherie Litson ([log in to unmask]).

COLORADO
Next meeting: Jan. 7
Topic: DfM/DfT
Location: Holiday Inn (Northglenn)

The Holiday Inn is located at I-25 and 120th Ave. The meeting time is 2 p.m. to 6. The topics are designing for manufacturability and testability, and designing tips. Also, an update on IPC Designer Certification will be presented. Sponsors will be available to answer questions and show you their products. Sponsors for this meeting will be: Hadco Corp., MentorGraphics/Veribest, and Valor. 
        	
HOUSTON
Next meeting: Jan. 11
Topic: Bare board testing
Location: Baker Atlas 

Baker Atlas is at 10201 Westheimer, Houston. Directions: From Houston, take I-10 West and exit at the Sam Houston Tollway, Southbound. Take the Westheimer exit, and turn left on Westheimer going eastbound. The Baker Atlas complex will be on the right.

The topic will be bare board testing. Les Bush and Fritz Kloecker from Spectra Test Systems will be discussing the importance of performing board testing. A representative from their Cam department will also be present to discuss the information needed from a designer, as input for the bare board test set up.

Social hour starts at 6:30 and the meeting will begin at 7:30. Dinner will be offered for a charge of $5. For more information, contact Randy Collins at 713-972-4768 or Judy Milsted at 713-686-3451. Please RSVP by Jan. 10 at 5 p.m. to Stephani at Champion Circuits at 713-686-3451. Cancellations will be accepted until 12:00 noon on January 11.

On Nov. 12, Susy Webb and Vinod Patel traveled to Dallas as representatives of the Houston chapter board of directors to meet with the North Texas board and Gary Ferrari. The meeting was to get the groups together to explore ideas on how to promote the local councils and encourage membership and training in the Texas area. Many ideas were presented and discussed that could prove quite helpful to local designers. 

Jan 11  Topic:  Bareboard Testing       Cordinator: Judy Millstid
March 14        Topic: Placement, Routing and Grid Techniques   Coordinator:
Susy Webb       Speaker: Barry Hurley
May 9   Topic: PCB Laminates and Resins Coordinator: Babara Burcham 
July 11 Topic: Designer Certiciation Overview   Coordinator: Russel Pringle
Sept. 12        Topic: RF Layout Principles     Coordinator: Susy Webb  Speaker: Rick Hartley
Nov. 14 Topic: Packaging Techniques     Coordinator: Randy Collins

MIDWEST (Minneapolis)
Next meeting: Jan. 11

We did not have a meeting in December. Our next meeting will be held on Jan. 11.

NORTHEAST OHIO 
Next meeting: Feb. 16 
Topic: Microvia 
Location: Pepperl-Fuchs 

We are awaiting confirmation of the meeting topic and speaker for February. The meeting time will be 4 p.m. to 6. 

NORTH TEXAS 
Next meeting: Jan. 20
Topic: Circuit design
Location: Texans Activity Center

The meeting starts at 6.We'll have a presentation on circuit design from Kevin Lowderman and Scot Vestal of Texgenix Corp. Preceeding and following the presentation, a video on multilayer fabrication will be shown.

See www.circuit-technology.com/html/next_meetings.html for more details.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST 
We held our executive board meeting Dec. 9. All board members attended the dinner meeting at the Keg Steakhouse where we completed (for the most part) our 2000 meeting schedule.

This next year we've planned many great programs for our members and associates. They include: a fabrication plant presentation and tour (Merix); an assembly plant presentation tour (Intel); PWB certification workshop; presentations on DfM through Physical Design Modeling, RF design, and HDI; and an EMI/EMC workshop (Rick Hartley). Please check our Web site for details (www.ipc.org/pnw/index.htm).

Our 2nd Annual Meeting will be held Jan. 19 at Ernesto's Italian Restaurant in Portland, from 5:30 to 8:30.  Dinner will be $7.50 for members and $12.50 for nonmembers. Our very special guest will be John Barnes, an Intel staff technical marketing engineer, who will talk about, How the Future Technologies of the Internet Revolution Impacts You. It is election night again as well. Positions open are president and secretary.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK
Next meeting: Jan. 19
Topic: Chapter kickoff
Location: Ericsson

Gary Ferrari will be the guest speaker for the kickoff of a new DC chapter located in the RTP area of North Carolina. We will discuss what the DC is, what the benefits of joining are, and what educational opportunities are available for designers. We will also discuss the startup and organization of the chapter. Free pizza and soft drinks will be served beginning at 5:30 and the general meeting will begin at 6:30. You must RSVP by Jan. 12 to get in on the free food and drinks.

Contact: Steve Trasatto, Ericsson (919-472-4783; [log in to unmask]).

SMOKY MOUNTAIN (Knoxville) 
Next meeting: January 
Location: Philips Consumer Electronics

The next meeting will be in January (if we survive Y2K!). The location is unknown, but Dwayne Beeler is working on CSI. The guest speaker will be from Pads Software (also the sponsor) and the subject will be signal integrity.

SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN 
Next meeting: Jan. 13
Topic: Chapter business
Location: Farmington Public Library

The SeMIs presently are reviewing the bylaws that are to be ratified at our next meeting, Jan. 13, at the Farmington Public Library, from 7 p.m. to 9. We will make some decisions then about our next activity. 

SOUTH JERSEY 
Due to scheduling problems, we have not yet received final approval for the Lucent Technologies plant tour.  Therefore, it will be necessary to delay the tour until February. Please watch your email for further information when it develops. Thus far, we have 19 interested members who have responded. 




Mike Buetow
Communications Director
IPC
2215 Sanders Road
Northbrook, IL 60062
847-790-5335