Printed Circuit Engineering Association™

Certified Printed Circuit Designer Training

The printed circuit design industry’s choice for comprehensive training and certification. This 40-hour live curriculum was developed by leading experts and includes a 400-page handbook containing information on everything from parts libraries to high-speed design.

Technical Symposium

EIPC and PCEA Announce Upcoming ‘Design to Fabrication’ Technical Symposium

GELEEN, THE NETHERLANDS AND PEACHTREE CITY, GA – April 24, 2025 – The EIPC, European Institute for the PCB Community) and Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) will cohost a “Design to Fabrication” Technical Symposium this spring in several Northern European cities.

The new event is scheduled to take place on May 6, 7 and 9 in the following cities: Stockholm, Tallinn and Copenhagen.

The presentations include:

  • Rick Hartley, RHartley Enterprises – Differential Pair Routing for SI and EMI Control
  • Tarja Rapala, EIPC – HDI and Ultra HDI PCB Manufacturing and Design Considerations
  • Alun Morgan, Ventec – PCB Materials: What Designers Need to Know
  • Steven Driver, JIVA Materials – Design with the End in Mind 

The symposium is designed for designers and other professionals involved in the electronics and fabrication industries. It will provide valuable insights, technical discussions, and networking opportunities for all attendees. Registration costs €75 each day and is open at eipc.org.

Ventec and JIVA Materials are corporate sponsors for the event. 

PCB Design Training Classes

PCEA Announces Additional PCB Design Training Classes

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – APRIL 24, 2025  – PCEA Training announced additional classes have been added for its industry-leading Certified Professional Circuit Designer (CPCD) training and certification program.

The five-day instructor-led course for printed circuit engineers, layout professionals, and other individuals currently serving in the design engineering industry or seeking to get into it will take place on the following dates:

  • June 23, 30, July 7, 14, 21
  • Sept. 12, 19, 25 Oct. 10, 17
  • Nov. 3, 10, 17, 24, Dec. 1

The classes cover the gamut of printed circuit design engineering, from layout, place and route to specifications and materials to manufacturing methods. Schematic capture, signal integrity and EMI/EMC are also part of the comprehensive program.

Each class is 40 hours long and includes a copy of Printed Circuit Engineering Professional, a 400-page handbook on circuit board design, and the optional certification exam recognized by Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA).

The last day to register for the June class is June 6.

There are no prerequisite requirements to enroll. Upcoming classes will be held online. All courses are led by experienced instructors.

The course handbook, Printed Circuit Engineering Professional, was authored by Michael Creeden, Stephen Chavez, Rick Hartley, Susy Webb and Gary Ferrari, industry veterans who combined have more than 200 years’ experience designing and building PCBs for all types of applications.

For information about the course overview, class format, and materials to prepare in advance for the class, visit pceatraining.net/course-overview.

For information about the instructors of the course and authors of the course material, visit pceatraining.net/instructors-authors.

To enroll, visit pceatraining.net/registration for the next available class or email pceatraining@pcea.net for additional information.

PCB East

PCB East 2025 Exhibition Floor Sold Out

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – APRIL 22, 2025 – The exhibition floor is sold out for PCB East, the largest exhibition and conference for printed circuit board design, fabrication and assembly in New England, the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) said today. 

“Coming off an outstanding PCB East 2024, booth sales for our 2025 event have been strong,” said Frances Stewart, vice president of sales and marketing at PCEA. “We’re looking forward to another great event.” 

PCB East will be held April 29 – May 2, at the Boxboro Regency Hotel & Conference Center in Boxborough, MA. The one-day exhibition takes place April 30.

This year’s exhibition will feature more than 65 industry-leading companies, ranging from printed circuit board design software developers to fabricators and assemblers, and equipment and materials suppliers. Attendees will be treated to a free lunch on the expo floor during the exhibition on April 30.

Attendees will also gain access to six free technical sessions featuring topics on AI and PCB design, flex design, simulation, UHDI, PCB signal layers, and more.

Following the close of the exhibition and free technical sessions, a reception will take place on the exhibition floor sponsored by Cofactr and EMA Design Automation.

To conclude the day, a PCB design community meetup will meet at the conference center.

Anyone who registers at pcbeast.com for the exhibition and free sessions by April 29 will receive free admission. Day of show registration for the exhibition and free sessions is $25.

PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB and CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY magazines are media partners for the event.

For more information about PCB East, visit pcbeast.com or contact Conference Director Mike Buetow at 617-327-4702; mike@pcea.net. 

Free Talks

Rick Hartley Joins Lineup of Speakers for Free Sessions at PCB East 2025

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – APRIL 16, 2025 – Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) announced today that Rick Hartley will be joining the lineup of speakers for the free sessions on April 30 at PCB East. Hartley, retired from L-3 Avionics as a senior principal engineer and owner of RHartley Enterprises, is the most popular speaker in the history of the PCEA technical conferences and will speak on copper pours on PCB signal layers. 

Registrants for the PCB East exhibition will gain access to six free technical sessions taking place at the Boxboro Regency Hotel and Conference Center in Boxborough, MA. Topics will cover AI and PCB design, flex design, simulation, UHDI, PCB signal layers, and more. 

“Free Wednesday” starts with a session on “AI and Other Upcoming Changes in PCB Design,” by Matthew Leary, founder and president of Newgrange Design.

After Leary’s presentation, Stephen Chavez, senior product marketing manager of Siemens and PCEA chairman, will speak about “Exploring the World of Ultra-High-Density Interconnect (UHDI) PCB Design.” 

The morning sessions will conclude with a session about “Copper Pours on PCB Signal Layers” presented by Hartley.  

After Hartley’s session, lunch will be available on the exhibit floor, which is free to all show registrants. 

Free sessions resume in the afternoon with three sessions: 

  • Simulation vs. Reality – Analyze What You Will Really Build 
  • Why Do You Need to Care about Tin Whiskers in High-Reliability Electronics? 
  • Basics of Flex Design

Following the free sessions is a reception on the exhibition floor sponsored by Cofactr and EMA Design Automation, and a PCB design community meetup to end the day.

Anyone who registers at pcbeast.com for the exhibition and free sessions by April 29 will receive free admission. Day of show registration for the exhibition and free sessions is $25.

PCB Detroit

PCEA Announces PCB Detroit Conference Sessions and Tabletop Exhibitors

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – March 5, 2025 – Registrants for PCB Detroit this June will gain access to several technical sessions and a tabletop exhibition, the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) announced today. 

The sessions take place on June 2-3 on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, and cover topics ranging from controlling noise, using AI in hardware and PCB design, flex and rigid-flex materials and DfM, HDI via design, and PCB cost drivers, among others.

Conference sessions include:

  • “Circuit Grounding to Control Noise and EMI,” Rick Hartley
  • “Solving Routing Problems in Digital Boards,” Susy Webb
  • “HDI Via Design: Planning the Energy Pipelines,” Dan Beeker
  • Low Layer Count and IoT PC Board Design,” Rick Hartley
  • “Designing Complex PCBs,” Stephen Chavez
  • Design Guidelines Associated with Unique RF Features,” John Johnson
  • Designing with Embedded Materials,” Bob Carter
  • Using AI in Hardware and PCB Design: Real Strategies to Increase Efficiency and Output,” Ethan Pierce
  • Flex/Rigid Flex: Materials, DFM and Cost Impacts,” Dave Lackey
  • “PCB Cost Drivers,” Michael Marshall
  • The Most Common Design Errors Caught by Fabrication (and How to Prevent Them),” Mike Tucker/Ray Fugitt

PCB Detroit will also feature a tabletop exhibition on June 2 with fourteen companies including: A2Z Electronics LLC, ADCO Circuits, AllSpice.io, ASC Sunstone Circuits, BarTron Inc., Cofactr, DirectPCB, DownStream Technologies, Electronic Interconnect, K&F Electronics, Polyonics, RBB, Summit Interconnect, and Zuken USA. 

A free reception on June 2 and special designers meetup (registration required) on June 3 will be held after classes end those days.

“PCB Detroit is the only place the electronics industry can see Rick Hartley, Susy Webb, Dan Beeker and Steph Chavez together at the same time in the Midwest,” said Mike Buetow, president of the Printed Circuit Engineering Association. “And the opportunities not just to learn but to network with fellow designers and engineers should not be missed.”

Registration for the two-day technical conference and the tabletop exhibition takes place at events.american-tradeshow.com/pcbdetroit/begin. Conference registration is required for both the conference and table top exhibition. Plus, lunch will be provided to registrants.

Wayne State University is Michigan’s third-largest university, and a licensee of the PCEA Training Certified Printed Circuit Designer curriculum. 

For more information about PCB Detroit, visit pcea.net/pcb-detroit or contact pcbdetroit@pcea.net.

Read the latest issues of PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY!

Collaborate, Educate, and Inspire

The Printed Circuit Engineering Association® (PCEA) is an international network of engineers, designers, fabricators, assemblers, and anyone related to printed circuit development. Our mission is to promote printed circuit engineering as a profession by encouraging and facilitating the exchange of information and the integration of new design concepts through education, certification, communications, seminars, and workshops. This is facilitated by a network of local, regional, virtual PCEA-affiliated chapters and the support of our sponsors.