The latest reports from the local chapters.

Last month’s column highlighted the Monterrey Designers Council chapter in Mexico. As promised, the featured chapter this month is the new Sonora chapter, also in Mexico. The Sonora chapter is aiming to establish its presence in the global IPC Designers Council community and set a vision for the future, including educational topics to explore and plans to expand membership.

The core leadership of this newly formed chapter stems from an outstanding group of both young and experienced engineers coming off their successful CID certification. They have formed an excellent group that is very hungry for industry knowledge, eager to take this chapter and run with it, and make their presence known in the IPC community. They’re hyped and ready to go!

Chapter Spotlight: Sonora

by Roberto Ivan Villalba Gonzalez, chairperson

The Sonora chapter was established after a CID class that took place in May in Nogales, Sonora. After a recommendation from the instructor (Stephen Chavez, MIT, CID+), class graduates decided to establish an IPC DC chapter and elected a leadership team (FIGURE 1).

Figure 1. Leadership team (l-r), including Rodrigo Martin del Campo Alcocer (assistant chairperson), Roberto Ivan Villalba Gonzalez (chairperson), and Jacob Ivan Castellanos Juarez (technical officer).

Our chapter is composed of members from different engineering disciplines, such as manufacturing, testing and product engineering. We all participate in the different stages of design and manufacturing of electronic assemblies.

The first meeting of the Sonora chapter included a presentation of team members and a brainstorm of ideas for accomplishing our vision (FIGURE 2): Members of the chapter will find a space to pursue further education, encourage the proliferation of technical knowledge, and broaden their professional network. Some of the topics we would like to cover soon include:

• Bring in experts who can share knowledge to take full advantage of the design tools that are available to us
• Learn about emerging technologies in the world of electronic assemblies
• Share previous experiences and challenges in the design, manufacturing, and testing of electronic assemblies.

Currently, all members work in Chamberlain Group’s Nogales manufacturing plant, but we are looking for members from all over the state to join us. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you’re in the area and want to learn more about our chapter.

Figure 2. Sonora chapter members.

Recent IPC CID/CID+ Certification Success

by Stephen V. Chavez, MIT, CID+

Half of the year has passed. It’s amazing how time flies. With that said, we’ve had many successful IPC CID and CID+ certification classes to date, resulting in many new and seasoned designers successfully achieving their certifications. Each of the instructors, led by IPC Hall of Famer Gary Ferrari, takes extreme pride in teaching these courses. The instructors – including Mike Creeden, Cherie Litson, Kelly Dack, Paul Fleming, Dave Seymour and me – have had great success in each class held. Most important, I want to highlight the success of all the students who achieved certifications so far this year. Student and instructor engagement has been excellent and, in some cases, the class experience truly inspiring from much of the student feedback submitted. For us instructors, the best feedback is when a former student contacts us after they return to their respective companies and applies what they have learned during one of our classes. Knowing we are making a positive difference and helping others be successful is one of the reasons IPC CID/CID+ instructors do what we do.

In the next section, you will find the remaining training sessions, and PCB West is right around the corner. I highly recommend attending these specific CID/CID+ certification classes, along with registering for and attending the full PCB West event. This opportunity for both certification and technical content knowledge sharing is always a great combination for us in the industry. I hope you can attend at least one or the other, or even better, both. I hope to see you there this year! 2019 Training and Certification Schedule

IPC Certified Interconnect Designer (CID)

• August 26-29: Markham, ON
• September 6-9: Santa Clara, CA
• September 19-22: Schaumburg, IL
• October 8-11: Carmel, IN
• October 21-24: Anaheim, CA
• November 2-5: Raleigh, NC
• November 5-8: Dallas, TX

IPC Advanced Certified Interconnect Designer CID+

• September 6-9: Santa Clara, CA
• September 10-13: Kirkland, WA
• September 17-20: Schaumburg, IL
• October 21-24: Anaheim, CA
• November 2-5: Raleigh, NC
• December 3-6: Manchester, NH

Note: Dates and locations are subject to change. Contact EPTAC Corp. to check current dates and availability. A minimum enrollment of seven students is required for a class to be held.

PCB Design Events

PCB West 2019

• September 9–11: Santa Clara, CA

Stephen (Steph) Chavez is a member of the IPC Designers Council Executive Board and chairman of the communications subcommittee; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Register now for PCB West, the leading conference and exhibition for printed circuit board design! Coming Sept. 9-12 to the Santa Clara Convention Center. pcbwest.com