CHAPTER NEWSLETTER – June 2025
Greetings!
If this is June, this must be Detroit!
PCEA is happy to cruise over to the Motor City this month, where we will hold the inaugural PCB Detroit, a two-day technical conference on the campus of Wayne State University. If you are reading this on or before June 2, join us for a welcome reception from 5 to 6 p.m., or stop by our Designers Meetup on June 3 from 6 to 7 p.m.
Registration is also open for PCB West, featuring more than 125 hours of in-depth electronics engineering training spread over more than 50 sessions. The program includes 30 classes never before taught at the show. Among the industry experts scheduled to speak this year are Rick Hartley, Susy Webb, Stephen Chavez, Chuck Corley, Karen Burnham, Tomas Chester, and Charlene McCauley. The conference will be held September 30 to October 3 at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center and features classes for every level of experience, from novice to expert.
Our latest PCEA Training certified printed circuit designer curriculum schedule is out. Register now for the June class!
We are here for you: let us know how we can help advance your work and your career.
Mike Buetow
PCEA President
mike@pcea.net
PCEA Training Update
Congratulations to our newest certified designers:
- Daniel Forta
Recent Discord Chatter
Overheard on the PCEA Discord server:
- Fabricators capable of building UHDI and M-SAP boards
- Role of education in designers' salaries
- Insulated metal base (IMS) boards
- Aluminum-core rounded boards for high-power LEDs
Want to join? Send a note to membership@pcea.net.
Local Chapters
Please forward your chapter news to pcea@pcea.net for inclusion on our website and in future newsletters.
National: Thanks to Dave Lackey of ASC Sunstone for his PCEA member webinar in May on flex material selection, fabrication notes, design tool considerations, panel/array usage and manufacturability.
Orange County: We are looking at a meeting the week of July 21. Stephen Chavez is our speaker and the topic is PCB Best Practices: Optimizing Engineering to Manufacturing Efficiencies,
Portland, OR: Our June 26 meeting starts at 12 p.m. Pacific and features renowned SI expert Don Telian. Thank you to our May presenter, Daniel Lindmark of Allspice.io, who shared higher-level details on design for manufacturing challenges and solutions. Contact Stephan Schmidt for details.
San Diego: Still finalizing plans for an in-person meeting this summer.
Silicon Valley: The Silicon Valley Chapter will hold a lunch-n-learn meeting in Fremont on June 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Pacific. The topic is Demystifying Manufacturing Validation from a PCB Designer’s Point-of-View, presented by Jayson Harames, application engineer consultant with Siemens. To reserve a seat, email Bob McCreight.
Virginia: Our kickoff meeting is on June 11 at 12 p.m. EST and features a presentation from Dan Beeker of NXP Semiconductor. Contact membership@pcea.net for the Zoom meeting link.
Upcoming conferences:
- PCB Detroit. June 2-3, Detroit
- PCB West. Sept. 30-Oct. 3 at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center.
- PCEA Training. PCEA will hold Printed Circuit Engineering Professional curriculum and certification classes as follows:
- June 23, 30, July 7, 14, 21
- Aug. 4, 11, 18, 25, Sept. 2
- Sept. 12, 19, 25, Oct. 10, 17
- Nov. 3, 10, 17, 24, Dec. 1
Reading Material
See below for highlights of the recent issues of PCD&F/Circuits Assembly. Read it all here.
Have an idea for an article? Contact us at pcea@pcea.net. No writing experience required!
- Are you using too many vias? Almost the entire industry believed that if the conducting cross-sectional area of the trace is n times greater than the conducting cross-sectional area of the via, then n vias are needed. We were wrong.
- Component land patterns: A primer. Key aspects on of determining parts layout from the manufacturer’s perspective.
- Is the industry ready for a solderless world? A groundbreaking advancement in solderless electronics manufacturing.
- For design tools, another record. Can it last? Making sense of the current market trends.
- A case study in solder balling and process optimization. The importance of a methodical troubleshooting approach.
- TFT module development. Expertise surrounding TFT module design in the US appears to have diminished, largely due to increasing operational costs.
- Managing the design room. So you want to be in charge?