SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Altium LLC, the leading printed circuit board (PCB) design software company, is partnering with the IPC Education Foundation (IPCEF) and Arduino to launch the second annual student electronics design challenge. This competition aims to engage, educate, and enhance PCB design capabilities while developing STEM solutions to environmental challenges. The electronics design challenge is an excellent opportunity for students to showcase their talents and gain real-world experience.

The Innovation for Environmental Change 2022 International Student Design Competition engages student teams to help address common environmental concerns using Altium’s educational PCB design tools with Arduino hardware. #PCBeTheChange

Over 17 countries submitted entries to last year's competition, which addressed various local environmental issues, including city traffic, shoreline erosion, bushfire detection, honey bee endangerment, and more.

Teams will use Altium Upverter Modular PCB design software and the Arduino Portenta H7 to create prototype designs that will improve the environment in each team's respective local area. The teams will be challenged to tackle one or more environmental concerns, such as air pollution, water quality, and solar energy capture.

As Yu Hu, head of Arduino Education, elaborates, “At Arduino, we believe that it is very crucial to empower the scientists and engineers of the future to address the common challenges of our time by using technology for the benefit of many. Last year’s entries showed an amazing combination of ingenuity, curiosity, and technical skills in their designs, and we’re excited to see what new and innovative STEM solutions the teams will submit this year.”

Participating teams will enter the design challenge while harnessing Altium Upverter Education and the Upverter Modular tool. Altium features multiple educational initiatives designed to support high school STEM teachers and students, along with programs to support college students and industry professionals.

“It was fascinating to see 87 teams from around the world participate, leveraging the printed circuit board design knowledge they had learned from Altium’s Upverter Education, to address important environmental issues. We are excited to see more unique designs from this year’s contestants and are honored to again have the opportunity to provide the curriculum and tools students need for the contest,” adds Rea Callender, vice president of education at Altium.

Winning teams will be eligible to win cash prizes for each category: high school and college: $1500 (1st prize), $750 (2nd prize) and $500 (3rd prize), free access to IPC APEX EXPO in San Diego, California from January 24-26, 2023. Designs will be displayed at the IPC Design Booth; awards will be presented at the IPC APEX EXPO STEM Outreach Event.

Charlene Gunter, senior director of IPCEF shares, “We believe that opportunities and experiences like this will allow students to gain awareness and access to the electronics manufacturing industry and in turn help them reach their career goals. This collaboration with Altium, Upverter Education, and Arduino showcases our mutual goals of engaging and educating students in PCB design, and we look forward to seeing the creativity and solutions the teams will create this year.”

Open registration for the design challenge is available now via Upverter Education and runs through Monday, October 3. Teams must submit their designs online by Friday, November 18. Competition winners will be announced on Wednesday, December 14, followed by virtual presentations for the first place and runner-up entrants.

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About Altium

Altium, LLC (ASX:ALU) is a global software company headquartered in San Diego, California, accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. For over 30 years, Altium has been delivering software that maximizes the productivity of PCB designers and electrical engineers. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize electronics-based products.

About Upverter Education

Upverter Education, launched by Altium in September 2020, is addressing an important societal need by empowering STEM educators teaching engineering, electronics design, and robotics with free essential tools and classroom resources. The program has been honored with multiple awards, including the EdTech Breakthrough Award, for Best Engineering Learning Solution and the Gold STEVIE® American Business Award, further validating Altium’s innovative approach to supporting STEM education.

Chandler, Arizona, Sept. 12, 2022 – Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG) will exhibit at PCB West in Santa Clara, CA (booth #201) highlighting some of its high performance circuit materials used in multilayer structures which include a family of thin laminates and bonding materials.

PCB West provides in-depth technical training and access to a host of leading suppliers to the printed circuit board design, fabrication, and assembly industry. Held at the Santa Clara Convention Center, the event takes place October 5th from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Rogers Presentation

Rogers’ Technical Marketing Manager, John Coonrod, will present “Understanding High Frequency Materials Test Methods for Dk and Df” on Wednesday, October 5th, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Coonrod’s presentation will review the many different test methods which can be used to determine the dielectric constant (Dk) or dissipation factor (Df) for a high frequency circuit material. He will explain how it is possible to test the same circuit material, using two different test methods, get two different answers and both answers can be correct.

Rogers’ Materials at Booth 201:

SpeedWave® 300P Ultra-Low Loss Prepreg. With the increasing need for stackup flexibility in high layer count designs for 5G millimeter wave, high resolution 77 GHz automotive radar, aerospace & defense and high speed digital designs, SpeedWave 300P prepreg offers a broad range of competitively priced high performance options for the circuit designer. SpeedWave 300P prepreg can be used to bond a variety of Rogers’ materials including XtremeSpeed™ RO1200™, CLTE-MW™, and RO4000® series laminates.

This prepreg system offers a low dielectric constant of 3.0 – 3.3 and a low dissipation factor of 0.0019 – 0.0022 at 10 GHz with stable performance over a broad frequency range. This material is offered in multiple spread and open weave glass styles and resin content combinations to maximize stackup options.

RO3003G2™ 9 micron Laminates with Electrodeposited HVLP Foil

Thin copper foil can simplify the PCB fabrication steps required to consistently produce reliable millimeter wave radar PCBs. Utilizing 9 micron foils on antenna outer layers for millimeter wave radar PCBs can help PCB fabricators achieve tighter final feature tolerance for signal lines and antenna patterns. Additionally, starting with 9 micron copper on RO3003G2 laminate, instead of 18 micron copper, can reduce the copper reduction steps needed by the PCB fabricator to meet the final PCB copper thickness requirements after filled via formation.

RO4835IND™ LoPro® Laminates

RO4835IND LoPro thermoset laminates are specially designed for 60-81 GHz short-range industrial radar applications, where excellent electrical performance and cost-efficiency are equally important. These laminates also provide environmental reliability and interconnection stability, which are critical criteria for PCB material selection.

With a low insertion loss of 2.13dB/inch at 60 GHz, these laminates meet customers’ critical radar coverage requirements. The expanded weave fiber provides excellent Dk uniformity, and Rogers’ tight quality control provides low Dk variation from lot to lot. RO4835IND LoPro laminates are compatible with standard epoxy/glass (FR-4) processes and have a higher fabrication yield rate than conventional PTFE-based laminates. Low material and fabrication costs make RO4835IND LoPro laminates a cost-effective solution for industrial radar.

RO4000® Products for Multilayer Structures:

Next generation products designed to meet the existing and emerging needs of advanced millimeter wave multilayer designs. RO4835T™ laminates, offered in a 2.5 mil, 3 mil and 4 mil core thickness, are 3.3 Dk, low loss, spread glass reinforced, ceramic filled thermoset materials designed for inner-layer use in multilayer board designs, and they complement RO4835™ laminates when thinner cores are needed.

RO4450T™ 3.2-3.3 Dk, low loss, spread glass reinforced, ceramic filled bonding materials were designed to complement RO4835T laminates and the existing RO4000 laminate family, and come in 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5 or 6 mil thicknesses.

RO4835T laminates and RO4450T bonding materials exhibit excellent Dk control for repeatable electrical performance, a low z-axis expansion for plated through-hole reliability and are compatible with standard epoxy/glass (FR-4) processes. These materials are an excellent choice for multilayer designs requiring sequential laminations, as fully cured RO4000 products are capable of withstanding multiple lamination cycles. RO4835T laminates and RO4450T bondplys have the UL 94 V-0 flame retardant rating and are compatible with lead-free processes.

About Rogers Corporation

Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG) is a global leader in engineered materials to power, protect and connect our world. Rogers delivers innovative solutions to help our customers solve their toughest material challenges. Rogers’ advanced electronic and elastomeric materials are used in applications for EV/HEV, automotive safety and radar systems, mobile devices, renewable energy, wireless infrastructure, energy-efficient motor drives, industrial equipment and more. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Rogers operates manufacturing facilities in the United States, Asia and Europe, with sales offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.rogerscorp.com

Incap has signed a cooperation agreement with Ampler Bikes, a leading Estonian manufacturer of electric bicycles, for production services for a controller device developed by Ampler.

According to Greg Grace, Managing Director of Incap Electronics Estonia, cooperation with Ampler Bikes is important for Incap in several ways. “As a customer, Ampler is a very fast-growing company engaged in the development and production of state-of-the-art technology. Therefore it is a great honour to be a partner of Ampler. In addition, the green technology and light mobility business are areas that Incap wants to focus on more and more,” he noted.

Grace emphasises that Ampler is a company where Estonian engineers have developed a high-tech end product that they sell and manufacture in Estonia - just like Ampler electric bicycles, the controller has been developed by Estonian engineers and is assembled at Incap's Kuressaare factory. “This means that the value created remains in Estonia. That is why Incap is very pleased to offer the capacity of its factory to support Ampler on their rapid growth path,” he said.

Tiit Priske, Business Development Manager of Incap Electronics Estonia, added that Ampler is a very well-managed company and recognised the product development team led by Hannes Laar and the electronics development team led by Markus Järve. "Both commercial and technical decisions at Ampler are made very quickly, so the impact of the current global crisis on cooperation is minimal," said Priske, adding that with this cooperation both companies want to set an example and encourage others to combine resources to conquer foreign markets.

Ampler Bikes, an Estonian company founded in 2016, develops and manufactures electric bicycles. Today the company has an international team of nearly 150 members and sales offices in Berlin, Cologne, Tallinn, Amsterdam and Zurich. Lightweight electric bicycles made by Ampler have won several awards, and in total there are more than 20,000 Ampler bikes in Europe.

Incap Electronics Estonia is part of Incap Corporation, which is an international electronics manufacturer. Electronics manufactured by Incap Electronics Estonia can be found for example in smart metres, in light electric vehicles on the streets, in smart LED lights in Estonian different regions as well as in the machinery of one of the world’s most famous marine companies.

PCB West: The leading technical conference and exhibition for electronics engineers. Coming Oct. 4-7 to the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. pcbwest.com

Keysight Technologies and Flexium Interconnect, a leading FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit Board) and LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) module vendor, are collaborating to improve millimeter wave modules and material test accuracy and efficiency.

The rise of 5G Frequency Range 2 (FR2), upcoming 6G, autonomous vehicle and emerging E-band applications are increasing the demand for millimeter wave, the band of spectrum with wavelengths between 10 millimeters (30 GHz) and 1 millimeter (300 GHz). High frequency and material characterization are critical to enabling low latency transmission and improving signal/power integrity. However, there remain challenges in measuring dielectric properties, which provide critical design parameters for many electronics applications in various frequencies, fixtures and methodologies.

"We’re excited to collaborate with Flexium on millimeter wave material measurements for next generation communication technologies, as engineers characterize, understand, integrate and accelerate the market adoption of high-frequency LCP antenna modules," said Joe Rickert, vice president of high frequency measurement R&D at Keysight Technologies.

Accurate test and system validation is vital while developing LCP antenna modules. Flexium adopted Keysight's N5227B PNA Microwave Network Analyzer, upconverters, S93007B Automatic Fixture Removal (AFR) and N1501AE11 Balanced Type Circular Disk Resonator (BCDR) to precisely characterize the mmWave sample circuit.

In addition, Flexium leveraged Keysight’s N1500A Materials Measurement Suite to perform accurate and continuous measurement of dielectric constant (Dk) and dissipation factor (Df) at desired frequencies, helping designers to automate complex permittivity and permeability measurements then quickly match corresponding parameters for end products. Flexium also used the company’s Metasiden mmWave antenna measurement system, integrated with Keysight's M9484C VXG Vector Signal Generator and N9042B UXA Signal Analyzer, to accurately measure directional antenna pattern, efficiency of radiation and validate module function to address customer needs.

Ming-Chi Cheng, President of Flexium, said, "Flexium adopted Keysight's PNA Network Analyzer Family for FPC measurement, which significantly reduced human error and improved test efficiencies. We are glad to work with Keysight as long-term partner. This joint effort will accelerate advanced designs in high-frequency, thinning, and multi-layer LCP antenna modules, as well as future opportunities of B5G/6G, LEO and autonomous vehicles."

PCB West: The leading technical conference and exhibition for electronics engineers. Coming Oct. 4-7 to the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. pcbwest.com