CHAPTER NEWSLETTER – August 2024
Greetings!
We are gearing up for the annual PCB West technical conference and exhibition, coming in just a few weeks!
PCB West is, of course, the largest exhibition and conference for printed circuit board design, fabrication and assembly in the Silicon Valley. And we are happy to report the exhibition floor space is sold out for the Oct. 9 exhibition.More than 100 exhibitors showcasing the leading companies in the PCB industry, including the top CAD and CAM vendors and top names in printed circuit fabrication and electronics assembly. Attendees will be treated to a free lunch on the show floor on the exhibition day.
The technical conference features a range of classes from designing all types of printed circuit boards to complex signal and power integrity and power delivery systems design. Foundational topics such as circuit grounding and PCB stackups are interspersed with advanced tutorials on DDR5, thermal management, analog measurements, system mechanical design, and more.
The discounted price for the PCB West 2024 technical conference ends Sept. 7, so register now!
PCB West will be held October 8 – 11, 2024, at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. Register here.
The fall schedule for the Certified Professional Circuit Designer training and certification program includes classes on Sept. 16 – 20 and Oct. 28, Nov. 1, 9, 15, and 22, respectively. 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. More details are here.
Interested in presenting at PCB East next spring? Submit your abstract now for the Apr. 29 – May 2 event, which takes place in the Boston subsurbs.
Also see us this fall at SMTAI and PCB Carolina!
Mike Buetow
PCEA President
mike@pcea.net
Local Chapters
Please forward your chapter news to pcea@pcea.net for inclusion on our website and in future newsletters.
National: The annual PCEA meeting will be held Oct. 8 from 9 to 10 a.m. during PCB West at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. An update on all association programs, plus the annual awards, will be presented.
Portland, OR: In August we welcomed Bill Loving of ScanCAD International for a discussion about PCB reverse engineering. We will hold a live meeting at Axiom Electronics in October. Those interested should email stschmidt@pcea.net.
San Diego: Our meeting on Aug. 20 featured Mark Finstad, director of engineering at Flexible Circuits Technologies. Chapter members enjoyed a presentation on flex circuit design and manufacturing over lunch. Among the door prizes was a free annual subscription for PCB Libraries.
Upcoming conferences:
- PCB West: October 8-11 at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center.
- PCB East: Apr. 29 – May 2 in the Boston suburbs.
PCEA Training. PCEA will hold Printed Circuit Engineering Professional curriculum and certification classes as follows:
Classes currently scheduled for 2024 are as follows:
- Sept. 16-20
- Oct. 28, Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22
More classes will be scheduled. Learn more at pceatraining.net.
Reading Material
Highlights of the recent issues of PCD&F/Circuits Assembly:
- Compensation trends. Is the PCB design workforce finally getting younger? After years of consternation from the PCB industry – and the country as a whole – about the daunting task of replacing retired or soon-to-be retired workers, those worries may be coming to a head as the workforce begins to skew younger. That’s the suggestion of the annual PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Designers Salary Survey.
- Designing for board thickness.For as long as there have been printed circuit boards, the nominal thickness seems to have been set at 0.062″.
- Wet processing. The most used distribution in reliability analysis may be the Weibull distribution. This sytudy shows how to use Weibull distribution to model gold wire bonding on ENEPIG.
- PCB’s green evolution.Electrification is one of today’s dominant megatrends. Taking the utmost care of every joule is critical to maximize the harvest from the scarce ambient energy sources and to minimize waste throughout the conversion system, distribution infrastructure, storage and – ultimately – the load. Exercising that care demands control.
- Solder paste dispensing. While stencil printing has long been the cornerstone of applying solder paste, it faces limitations with extremely small or large components. Dispensing offers the advantage of infinite flexibility, capable of producing both minuscule and substantial deposits while seamlessly integrating into the existing SMT process.
- Component obsolescence. Managing parts selection for the inevitable future.
Have an idea for an article? Contact us at pcea@pcea.net. No writing experience required!
