WILSONVILLE, OR – After 40 years in the PCB industry, Happy Holden, formerly of H-P and Merix, is retiring from Mentor Graphics this week—if you can call it a retirement.

Once he fulfills his obligations with IPC and PCB West in September, he and his wife will spend a few months traveling and visiting family. Afterwards, they will split their time between homes in Kenting, Taiwan and Durango, CO.

He still needs to finish seven new chapters for the second edition of his HDI Handbook and begin planning for the third edition. He also wants to explore other e-book topics on interconnects and future technologies.

While in Taiwan, he expects to find some consulting projects to take up his time. “I have always had this vision to create an s/w programmable modular PCB that you could use for prototyping in about one hour,” he says. “Taiwan is the ideal place, with so many PCB makers in such a small island. With their new 200-mph bullet train, I can be up in Taoyuan in 90 minutes.”