Engineers, PCB designers, business execs, and even marketing and sales teams all understand the value in both time and cost savings for first pass success of printed circuit board designs. And, release dates are critical to the success of a product.

In this episode, John explores design for manufacturing analysis. What defines a best-in-class design flow? What steps should be taken to achieve first pass design success?

Have questions or topics of interest? Interested in being a guest on the show? Contact us at [email protected]. Subscribe today so you don’t miss any future episodes!

Where does collaboration with MCAD fit into your PCB design flow? Are you still encountering communication barriers between electrical and mechanical domains?

In this episode, John McMillan talks about the evolution of the handoff between MCAD to ECAD and the advances that make collaboration more efficient than ever before.

Have questions or topics of interest? Interested in being a guest on the show? Contact us at [email protected]. Subscribe today so you don’t miss any future episodes!

Host John McMillan talks about EDA industry updates including cool gadgets, 2016 technology and EDA events, EDA industry news, and 01005 chips.

Don’t miss the first PCB Tech Talk giveaway! Details included in this episode. Be sure to include #pcbtechtalk in all your podcast-related tweets!

Events and articles mentioned:

Computer Electronics Show 2016

DesignCon 2016 January 19-21

SMTA “Pan Pacific” Microelectronics Symposium 2016 January 25-28

IPC APEX EXPO 2016 March 13-17

Internet of Things World 2016 May 10-12

PCB West 2016 September 13-15; abstract submissions due February 5Bottom of Formth

SMTA International 2016 September 25-29 

PCB Carolina 2016 November 2

References:

Printed Circuit Design & Fab 10 best-read articles in 2015

EDA CONSORTIUM Report  

Addressing Your Comments and Questions on the Aging PCB Design Workforce

Bureau of Labor and Statistics

Have questions or topics of interest? Interested in being a guest on the show? Contact us at [email protected]. Subscribe today so you don’t miss any future episodes!

Listen in as podcast host John McMillan and guest David Wiens discuss PCB design industry trends over the years and specifically new trends and challenges showing up in the most recent Technology Leadership Awards design competition submissions.

Topics in this episode include:

Have questions or topics of interest? Interested in being a guest on the show? Contact us at [email protected]. Subscribe today so you don’t miss any future episodes!

Having a 3D view in PCB design tools is not new. However, 3D capabilities have greatly evolved over the past five years or so. What was once a “nicety” is now vital to the PCB design work environment.

Join host John McMillan as he discusses why 3D is becoming (or perhaps already is) the layout environment of choice.

What advantages have you noticed with 3D?

Links:

Have questions or topics of interest? Interested in being a guest on the show? Contact us at [email protected]. Subscribe today so you don’t miss any future episodes!

Join host John McMillan and producer Brittany Bach as they discuss listener comments in response to episode three: Are PCB Designers Becoming an Endangered Species?

Fresh Faces in the Design Community, PCB&F, 2014 PCB Designer Annual Survey

How did you learn PCB layout?, EDN Network

LinkedIn Group Discussion, Old Timers PCB Designer Group

Thanks to all our listeners for making PCB Tech Talk a top featured podcast in the Software How-to New and Noteworthy section on iTunes! Have questions or topics of interest? Interested in being a guest on the show? Contact us at [email protected].

In this episode, I speak with special guest, David Wiens (Business Development Manager, System Design Division at Mentor Graphics) about PCB industry trends and the 26th annual Technology Leadership Awards (TLAs).

The longest running competition of its kind, the TLAs recognize engineers and CAD designers who use innovative technology to address today’s complex PCB systems design challenges. Dave and I talk about various aspects of the competition as well as the trends that are revealed through the new submissions each year.

So, listen in for details and then gather up your best designs from the past year. Oh, and tell your friends who you know created some impressive work too. A little healthy competition amongst friends is a good thing, right? Plus, there are some great prizes for the winners.

Contest categories:

Trust me, you don't want to don't talk yourself out of submitting your design(s) because you think they may not be technically complex enough to submit. The judging criteria spans beyond size and density. Who knows, you could be among the next set of winners!

Where to go next:

Have questions, topics of interest, or a guest recommendation? Send them to [email protected] so that we can feature them in future episodes.

Guest Bio: David Wiens joined Mentor Graphics in 1999 through the acquisition of VeriBest. Over the past 25 years, he has held various engineering, marketing and management positions within the EDA industry. His focus areas have included advanced packaging, high-speed design, routing technology and integrated systems design. He holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Kansas.

In this episode, I talk about the PCB design profession and, perhaps, bust the myth that PCB designers are quickly becoming a vanishing breed.

Join me as I discuss these questions and more, looking into who the majority of today’s PCB designers are, who the next generation of PCB designers may be, and also where they may be coming from and how they might get there.

Have questions or topics of interest? Interested in being a guest on the show? Contact us at [email protected].

Fresh Faces in the Design Community, PCB&F, 2014 PCB Designer Annual Survey

How did you learn PCB layout?, EDN Network

LinkedIn Group Discussion, Old Timers PCB Designer Group