WESTBOROUGH, MA – Apple was welcomed as one of the newest members of the IPC-2581 Consortium during the group's most recent meeting.

"We would like to support IPC-2581 as a standardized format to enable better communication between, for example, fab and assembly vendors," Apple said in a statement.

Also introduced as new members were Beta CAE and Panasonic Connect.

During the meeting, members also discussed the use of a coin shape as an interesting application in a CAD system for PCB design, as well as a new via type to handle the application and how it would be defined in the CAD system. Other topics of discussion included the need for improved communication of materials and stack-up definitions to manufacturers – including composite and roll-up materials, the need to define and name dialectric layers in the stack up, particularly for trench vias, and the inclusion of span information for these layers.

The IPC-2581 Consortium is a group of PCB design and supply chain companies whose collective goal is to enable, facilitate and drive the use of IPC-2581 – a generic standard for printed circuit board and assembly manufacturing description data and transfer methodology – in the industry.