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In the 1972 classic movie “The Candidate”, Bill Mckay, played by Robert Redford, ran for the  State Senate. Although he was a long shot and an underdog, McKay ends up surprising everyone with an incredibly close win. After the concession speech of his opponent, a vast mob surrounds McKay. He fights through the crowd, trying to reach his campaign Manager Marvin (played by Peter Boyles). Finally reaching him, he pulls him aside into a hotel room...

When we think of a library, we first think of a building which holds materials of some kind. In April of 1800, when the seat of the government moved from Philadelphia to Washington, one of President Monroe’s first acts was allocating $5,000 to purchase books for Congress to use. Once established, the Library of Congress originally held a total of 740 books and three maps. Now, it contains 32 million cataloged books and other print materials in...

In the words of Tim O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly Media and a major proponent of Open Source & Software Development, “We're entering a new world in which data may be more important than software.” I tend to disagree with that; I believe that data is enhanced by software especially when we are talking about data related to PCB Management. I’m a long-time user of Altium software and very pleased with the way the software has evolved. So get...

As a grandfather, one of the great joys of my life is to play with any of my five grandchildren. On top of their fun list is to play on the teeter-totter at the playground. They usually enjoy it until grandpa gets on one side and they try to lift me. Then the poor little tykes get a harsh lesson in leverage, balance, and just how heavy grandpa is. In PCB Design, it is all about balance. IPC-2221 reminds us that the design process comes with...

Is it practical or indulgent to look at exactly how the principles of good PCB Data Management can and should change our normal PCB Design processes? It is practical and necessary for operational processes to benefit from continual improvement. Let’s explore how to do so with PCB data management. Root Causes You need to allow specific PCB Data to change your operational processes so you can analyze and find the root causes of problems...

The design process for an electronic system requires decisions that will influence the cost and performance of the printed circuit assembly (PCA).  General Principles There is value in being able to quickly estimate the impact of design on cost. Because of the increasing pressure to shorten time to market, design engineers may not have the luxury of using trial and error and price quotes to fine-tune a new design. In addition, the further...

  As noted in several previous blogs, these days, “high-speed PCB” is pretty much ubiquitous in our industry. And, as cited, we always say that regardless of the end product or implementation every PCB is high speed by virtue of the IC technology incorporated in it. A few years back, we started saying that what was important was the edge rates of the components, or more specifically, the interconnections between the component edges and the...

Like it or not, flex and rigid-flex PCBs are here to stay, and progressively more flexible electronics are moving out of the research phase and into industry. Flex PCBs are now used for much more than powering a motor in your magnetic hard drive. Any device that contains a foldable or translating element likely includes a dynamic flex PCB. With the growth in the flex PCB market reaching tens of billions, PCB designers have every incentive to...