PCB DESIGN CONFERENCE 2011

I'm thrilled to be reporting on PCBWest 2011, because for the last 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, PCBWest 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...

TWENTY AND COUNTING?

This was the 20th anniversery of PCBWest? Seriously? How could we have
gotten so old already? Now I'm feeling nostalgic.... UPMedia 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
Intruments (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 micro-vias. 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 disk.

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 UPMedia at
http://pcbwest.com/2011/proceedings/

EXHIBITIONISM

Although the exhibit spaces have seemed to be shrinking in size over
the last decade or so, UPMedia 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 Handook (http://HDIhandbook.com), 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 PCBLibrary, 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 towards 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" (PCU) at
https://www.printedcircuituniversity.com/
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 OF THE PUZZLE

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,
Jackhttp://HowToPCB.net

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