Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - Design News

Design News

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 02 July 2008

WILSONVILLE, OR – Mentor Graphics increased its bid for Flomerics to about $2.43 per share, or $60 million based on outstanding shares to close the deal.

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 01 July 2008

ROCHESTER, NY – EMA Design Automation has announced that Cadence Design Systems’ OrCAD customers now have access to engineering data of the Digi-Key part database.

“Bringing Digi-Key data into the OrCAD environment means our customers have over one million orderable parts…available during part selection,” said Manny Marcano, CEO of EMA Design Automation. “It streamlines the purchasing process by providing correct part numbers as part of the design engineering process.”

EMA claims that placing parts directly into a design reduces the chance of re-spins due to wrong, obsolete, or non-compliant parts, and reduces administrative overhead when validating new part requests. Having the cost information available also assists in monitoring production costs and profitability.

“At Digi-Key, we take pride in finding new ways to provide the best service possible,” said Mark Larson, COO at Digi-Key. “We decided to make our web data available so that EMA could get our parts in front of engineers at the point of part selection.”

EMA integrated the Digi-Key database into OrCAD by creating the EMA Component Information Portal (CIP), to update the Component Information System (CIS) database. With the addition of the interface, new part requests can now come directly from Digi-Key along with related part information.

For more information, go to www.ema-eda.com/Digi-Key.

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 30 June 2008

CHICHESTER, UK -- Teknoflex Ltd has installed Genflex software to support the design, engineering and manufacture of flexible, flex-rigid and sculptured flex circuits.

The addition of the Genflex software is part of an investment program at Teknoflex to ensure the organization keeps pace with advances in the flex circuit market. The addition of this software further extends the current technological capabilities of Teknoflex offering important benefits in the manufacture of complex 3-D circuits.

Mr. Brian Shorrock, Managing Director at Teknoflex, said, “Genflex will reduce front-end time and ensure we are able to provide excellent support in design for manufacture (DFM) to our current & new customers. We chose this software due to its impressive feature array and ability to meet our needs.”

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 26 June 2008

WILSONVILLE, OR – Mentor Graphics Corp. has announced the publication of a book written by Charles Pfeil, engineering director of Mentor’s Systems Design Division, entitled BGA Breakouts and Routing, Effective Design Methods for Very Large BGA. The book explores the impact of dense ball-grid array (BGA) packages with high pin-count on PCB design, and provides solutions for design challenges.

“As BGA density and pin count continue to increase, the designer’s ability to effectively design with the devices has not kept pace. Fortunately, significant advancements in PCB fabrication technology have enabled further miniaturization in the manufacturing process,” said Pfeil.

The company offers that these improvements, along with new software and methods of design specifically targeted for BGAs, provide improved methods when using these devices.

“BGA Breakouts and Routing is a useful industry resource," said James Patten of Northrop Grumman Space Technology. "The book explores BGA routing in a logical and straight-forward manner, and provides an orderly methodology while offering valuable insight into designing with these devices."

To obtain a copy of the publication, visit mentor.com/go/bga or contact Charles directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

MARLBOROUGH, MA - Flomerics' Flotherm software has helped Redback Networks with the cooling problems involved in Redback's first broadband, phone and TV subscriber platform.

"The power dissipation of the line cards in the new platform had to be increased by 2X …to obtain the planned improvement in performance and functionality," said Wendy Lu, engineer for Redback. "By focusing on reducing the chassis static pressure via geometry changes and using a higher performing fan, we were able to double the airflow in the chassis."

Lu utilized Flotherm's software to evaluate plenum geometry to obtain the required level of airflow. Then, using the software's generated board model, she ran simulations on the model to ensure that critical components could be cooled to within specifications.

Lu then commissioned a foamcore model of the newly designed plenum so that physical tests could be performed, and lab measurements closely matched the simulation results, with no design changes required for the prototype. The new platform will go into production and has already been selected by one of the top 20 telephone carriers in the world, ChungHwa Telecom of Taiwan.

BEIJING, CHINA - Magma Design Automation has announced that it will open offices in Beijing and Shanghai, adding 18,000 square feet of office space in the two cities, and expand its IC R&D team to provide local customer support. The company reported that it has also launched a university program partnership with the Chinese government.

"Driven by computing and consumer electronics demand, the Chinese semiconductor market is projected to surpass $28 billion in 2011," said Rajeev Madhavan, CEO of Magma. "Doing business here requires an understanding of the dynamic characteristics of the Chinese market, the role of the government and the differences in business practices."

The company stated that its program with local universities will increase the local engineering talent pool and foster research. It will provide course material, software and support, and contribute to design automation research labs. Sarah Xu, Ph.D. has been appointed as managing director, and will act as liaison to universities and EDA partners.

"China is putting strong emphasis on engineering education and software development," Xu said. "We are pleased to support these efforts by working with local universities to train engineers... and contribute to important research."

"We've worked closely with Magma in a number of areas including an internship program and joint research program," said Yici Cai, professor at the Tsinghua University Computer Science Department. "With this successful collaboration as a foundation, we look forward to extending our relationship through the formal university program."

The company established its first facility in Beijing in 2003.