• Is the PCB Industry Ready to Embrace 5G?

    Is the PCB Industry Ready to Embrace 5G?

    Growing demand for 5G systems escalates the need for high-end PCBs.
    Fabricators must be aware of smaller margins of error, risk of system malfunction
    and communication failures.  READ MORE...

  • How to Produce an ECO or Update an Existing Design

    How to Produce an ECO or Update an Existing Design

    Most CAD designers get the layout correct the first time and never make layout changes after board files go to production. So how do you handle large-scale modifications?  READ MORE...

  • Material Selection for High-Speed PCB Design

    Material Selection for High-Speed PCB Design

    When it comes to purchasing circuit boards, “commodity manager” may have been a reasonable title decades ago, but it’s not accurate today. Everything matters at higher speeds.
      READ MORE...

  • Why Are You Still Using Gerber?

    Why Are You Still Using Gerber?

    The alternatives to Gerber, IPC-2581 and ODB++, offer a single-source, intelligent dataset used for processes throughout the PCB cycle. A longtime user compares and contrasts the ECAD formats.  READ MORE...

  • Going Green: PCB Designers Say Salaries on Rise

    Going Green: PCB Designers Say Salaries on Rise

    Designers and engineers are getting paid more. But are they working harder for a living?  READ MORE...

  • Designing for Higher Power in Smaller Form Factors

    Designing for Higher Power in Smaller Form Factors

    The redesign of a higher wattage adapter into a space 25% smaller was made easy by thermal modeling software.  READ MORE...

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Columns

  • What’s the Difference?

    Here’s the headline: F-35 Jets: Chinese-Owned Company Making Parts for Top-Secret UK-US Fighters” Sounds dramatic. As it turns out, Exception PCB, a UK-based fabricator, is building circuit boards for the next-gen airfighter. And Exception is owned by Shezhen Fastprint, the …

    Read more...

  • Laminate Consolidations Continue to Stack Up

    AGC continued its consolidation of the laminates market this week, reeling in Taconic for an undisclosed amount. The Japanese company also acquired Nelco last winter, giving it two of the remaining US-based PCB materials manufacturers. That leaves Isola and Rogers …

    Read more...

  • Designing User Experience for the Factories of Tomorrow

    by Olga Zinoveva, Senior Software Engineer, Bright Machines The User Experience (UX) discipline in the technology sector has evolved rapidly over the last two decades and we’ve all witnessed the changes.  For example, the transition from button-based phones and keyboard-only interfaces …

    Read more...

  • Leadership Failure! What Will It Cost You?

    What can you do if you have an employee or leader who has poisoned the well?

    Read more...

  • Who’s Leaving Whom?

    According to the New York Times today, the Chinese government is compiling a list of companies and individuals to penalize in response to the US block on Huawei. The piece ends with these thoughts: Forcing out American companies from China’s …

    Read more...

  • Somewhere, Craig Gates is Probably Chuckling

    Cemtrex today announced a pending six-for-one (!) reverse stock split of its outstanding common stock. The move comes at the OEM/EMS tries to regain Nasdaq compliance. Rewind a little and you’ll see over the first two quarters Cemtrex’s revenues have …

    Read more...

  • ‘Huawei’ E.O. Portends Total Supply Chain Chaos

    While Huawei is a $100 billion company, larger than all but a few other tech firms, Trump's executive order could have tentacles that reach far beyond the Chinese OEM. Even if all the defense industry primes, for instance, buy all their boards onshore (doubtful), many others do not, including the financial markets, and key industries such as nuclear, power, etc.

    Read more...

  • Tempo Accelerates

    Which EMS has received the most private equity funding over the past few years? Chances are, it’s Tempo Automation. The San Francisco-based contract assembler just added another $45 million (that’s right) in new capital. That’s on top of the $20 …

    Read more...

  • SMT Workshop Pre-Test

    Folks, Six months ago … Patty had just finished an all day workshop on “Common Defects in SMT Assembly and How to Minimize Them.” The workshop seemed to go really well, and many of the 35 or so attendees thanked …

    Read more...

  • Become a Part of Patty and The Professor!

    I have enjoyed writing the Patty and the Professor blog for about 10 years now. I’ve written about numerous real-life electronics assembly examples that I have encountered in my career, all disguised, of course. To continue keeping things real, and …

    Read more...
Mike Buetow

CAVEAT LECTOR

Is the supply chain about to break?

Mike Buetow
 Peter Bigelow

ROI

Lack of talk of inflation is deafening.

Peter Bigelow
Greg Papandrew

Board Buying

The true cost of tariffs.

Greg Papandrew
  

PCB GUIDED INSIGHTS

Prepping files for manufacturing.

EMA Design Automation

 

Designer's Notebook

What could go wrong with differential pairs?

Rebecca Lord
 Ralf Bruening

Material Matters

Glass-weave skew causes.

Bill Hargin
David Bernard 

Material GAINs

Is the PCB industry ready for VMI?

Alun Morgan
 Bryan Germann

ADDED UP    NEW!

Designing for buildup processes.

Bryan Germann
 
Bob Willis
 

DEFECTS DATABASE

Compression depression.

Bob Willis
 Stephen Chavez 

The Digital Route

The latest happenings among the IPC Designers Council chapters.

Stephan Chavez

 
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