SANTA CLARA, CA -- Attendance at last week's PCB West trade show rose 12% year-over-year as the tepid economy didn't seem to bother either the number of visitors or the enthusiasm.

Conference attendance rose 5.6% over 2011 as printed circuit board designers, fabricators and assemblers flocked to the larger technical program. The most popular sessions ranged from basic seminars as common PCB design errors to BGA decoupling, EMI grounding and PCB transmission lines.

PCB West was held September 25 – 27 at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center and was sponsored by the UP Media Group publications PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB and CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY. It included a three-day technical conference consisting of more than 55 presentations, a one-day exhibition, featuring the PCB industry's leading vendors; and an array of free technical sessions.

Overall, some 1,400 printed circuit board designers, fabricators and electronics assemblers, managers and suppliers attended the trade show, up 12% from the 2011 event, UP Media Group said.

On the show floor, the big news came when Bare Board Group president Greg Papandrew took to the PA system to announce the acquisition of Hunter Technology's PCB shop.

PCD&F also announced its 2012 New Product Introduction Awards for PCB design. National Instruments received an award in the System Modeling and Simulation Tools category for System Simulation of Analog Circuitry and Digital Logic in NI Multisim and LabVIEW. In the PCB Design Tools category, Intercept Technology won for its latest release of Pantheon.

"It was a terrific week," said Mike Buetow, editorial director of UP Media Group, which produces the annual show. "The most popular sessions pulled between 85 and 100 attendees, and even on the last day, more than 80% of the conference registrants were still attending classes, a reflection of the quality of the program and speakers."

PCB West 2013 will take place Sept. 24-26 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

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