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FEATURES

DESIGNERS COUNCIL
25 Years of the Designers Council
The founders look back at the grass roots effort to make the “designer” a recognized and valued profession.
by Chelsey Drysdale

INDUCTOR DESIGN
Design for Excellence: Inductor Form, Fit, Function Equivalence and New Design Rules
A lack of standardization – or even attention – for the mountain of inductor package types is spurring high-impedance failures.
by Matt Kelly, Mitch Ferrill, Mark Jeanson, Jesus Montanez and Timothy Jennings

PRODUCTRONICA RECAP
At Productronica, the Machines Did the Talking
At the largest electronics trade show outside Asia, equipment vendors emphasized their ties to one or more of the various machine communication protocols under development.
by Mike Buetow

Advantages of Organic Polymers vs. ITO in Capacitive Touch Keys
PEDOT is gaining traction as a replacement for ITO-based designs.
by Steve Fulton

In Memoriam
A look back at friends and colleagues who left us in 2017.

FIRST PERSON

• CAVEAT LECTOR
  Lots of talk about machine communication.
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• ROI
  Annoyed by the acronyms.
  Peter Bigelow
  

TECH TALK

• DESIGNER’S NOTEBOOK
  Building a better BoM.
  Duane Benson
• THE FLEXPERTS
  Tricks of the over-mold.
  Mark Finstad
• GETTING LEAN
  Are you capable?
  John Borneman

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FEATURES

PANELIZATION
Reducing PCB Costs through Panel Optimization
Many OEMs consider panelization a manufacturing task and blindly delegate those decisions to their fabricators and assemblers. In doing so, they are missing an opportunity to affect material expenses, a leading cost driver for PCBs.
by Patrick McGoff

FIRST PERSON

• CAVEAT LECTOR
  Voice prompts.
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• ROI
  Putting an end to the endless inspections.
  Peter Bigelow
  

TECH TALK

• MATERIAL GAINS
  Prepping for signal integrity.
  Martin Cotton

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FEATURES

EMC ANALYSIS
Adding Automated EMC Analysis to PCB Layout
There is a perception that EMC analysis during layout can be a time-consuming task that is challenging to set up and properly configure, with difficult-to-interpret results. But conducting EMC analysis at appropriate points prior to fabrication can mitigate the need for redesigns.
by Craig Armenti

PLATING
Black Pad Revisited
Black pad is often the root cause of solderability issues. How do you differentiate it from other soldering defects?  And why should you care?
by Martine Simard-Normandin and Christina Banks

FIRST PERSON

• CAVEAT LECTOR
  Big problems.
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• ROI
  What the P in IP really stands for.
  Peter Bigelow
  

TECH TALK

• DESIGNER’S NOTEBOOK
  When routing strategies increase crosstalk.
  Nikola Kontic
• THE FLEXPERTS
  Control mechanisms.
  Nick Koop

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FEATURES

DfM
Guidelines for Improving PCB Design Manufacturability
Running PCB assembly lines without operators for an extended period of time is the holy grail of manufacturing. A look at the state-of-the-art technologies to put that goal within a robot’s reach.
by Ranko Vujosevic, Ph.D.

3D PRINTING
Elements of Additive Manufacturing for Functional Printed Electronics
The next leap for prototyping and additive manufacturing gets us closer to the “factory-in-a-box.” What elements are involved in this coming tsunami of additive manufacturing?
by Priyanka Dobriyal

NTI-100
Automotive Driving Fabricator Gains
For fabricators whose major customers were Apple and Samsung, growth was hard to come by in 2016. But suppliers to the auto sector were revving up.
by Dr. Hayao Nakahara

Altium Expands Its Reach
An interview with Ben Jordan on Altium's perspective on future changes in engineering and CAD requirements.
by Mike Buetow

FIRST PERSON

• CAVEAT LECTOR
  Soldering out of thin air.
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• ROI
  North America: Better than you think.
  Peter Bigelow
  

• FOCUS ON BUSINESS
  The Limits of Certification.
  Gene Weiner
• GLOBAL SOURCING
  Swiping right on a fabricator.
  Greg Papandrew

TECH TALK

• DESIGNER’S NOTEBOOK
  On the center.
  Duane Benson