Ontrack With Judy Warner

Our guest Phil Marcoux is very well-known in the advanced electronic packaging community and currently working as a business mentor in the electronics industry.  Phil is labeled as the father of SMT by the IPC. He is a Charter member of SMT Council, granted the IPC President's Award, past owner of over 40 integrated circuit packaging and camera module-related patents, and consultant on numerous heterogeneous designs and standards, just to name a few of his excellent achievements. Today we will tackle the pros and cons of heterogeneous electronic assemblies and what we can do as an industry to move forward with it. Show Highlights: Learn about Phil Marcoux and his upcoming panel discussion at PCB West  The panel will discuss “How Heterogeneous Integration Affects the PCB Industry.” Phil is looking forward to promoting PCEA and the need to embrace education PCB designers must recognize what compromises they will have to make to utilize that chiplet One of the challenges is to encourage companies to work toget

In this episode, our guest Joe Dickson, tells us about the cutting-edge technology implemented in advanced packaging at Wus Printed Circuit International.   Watch the episode here Show Highlights: Joe Dickson talks about what they do at Wus, a printed circuit manufacturing company He shares about their efforts to bring PCB technologies farther up by introducing advanced packaging options He briefly describes what printed circuit-like materials are, also known as the vertical interposers or PCIe Zach explains how a pre-packaged chip can be mounted on a board What are the reliability and signal integrity challenges that come with assembling different packages on a board Off-the-board solutions start to become more and more desirable  The flexibility of design and components is what driving the market to use more integrated packaging Speed is everything! When will the industry move on from copper and go to optical?  Knowing what's going on in simulations is very important; it opens opportunities to try new t

Performance and reliability are big in the automotive industry, especially now that electronically powered and automated vehicles are starting to become more popular. In this episode, we will learn so much about automotive electronics and the reliability of electronics systems that goes in the vehicle. Our guest Lenora Clark, the director of autonomous driving and safety technology at ESI automotive will share with us the importance of material choices for your PCB can affect the reliability and performance of your vehicle’s system design. Show Highlights: Lenora is Chemist by education. She joined MacDermid, now MacDermid Alpha Electronic Solutions, as a bench top chemist, developing chemicals for PCB manufacturersHer focus was on surface finishing helping PCB fabricator improve their process from a chemical standpoint to enhance the performance and reliability of PCBs From working with surface finishing, she worked her way up and became the project manager, product line director for surface finishing, and l

Let’s talk about Electronics reliability with the QA guru Cheryl Tulkoff. In this episode Cheryl and I will talk about risk assessment, planning for not only success but also a failure, and understanding the difference between quality and reliability. This discussion is going to be very informative for every PCB designer who wants to get ahead of their game. Watch through the end, and make sure to check the additional resources below. Watch this episode here Show Highlights: Cheryl shares her rewarding career experience in the electronics industry She worked at IBM where she was immersed in electronic manufacturing from beginning to end She also worked at DfR Solutions and National Instruments where she learned all the skills and knowledge in electronics manufacturability, quality & reliability consulting To produce a successful electronic product it is important to have the awareness to resolve every problem, from the chip level, board level, system level, and the environment level Cheryl explains why

You would not want to miss this informative, knowledge-packed conversation with Dr. Kunal Shah. Dr, Kunal generously gives us all a crash course on surface finishes and understanding different types of materials that could affect signal integrity, reliability and electronic shelf life. He will also tackle in detail the pros and cons of various types of nickel-free finishes. Watch this podcast episode now or listen on the go. Make sure to check the notes and additional resources below. Show Highlights: PCB Designers must be knowledgeable of various manufacturing processes and materials One of the things that makes liloTree unique is its innovation in materials development and ensuring better and robust reliability of the electronic assembly liloTree offers eco-friendly solutions (organic surface finishes) that enhance reliability and offer better performance in terms of signal integrity Dr. Kunal shares his background and how he founded liloTree Manufacturers are trying to find alternatives for ENIG (Electro

In this episode, Representative Moore, one of the co-sponsors of H.R.7677, the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act of 2022, will give us brief but insightful details about the bill. Show Highlights: Representative Blake Moore explains the reasons behind the efforts to push the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act of 2022 Rep. Moore briefly touches on the topic of material sourcing and potential environmental challenges  A potential roadblock concerning raw materials is overcoming challenges coming from the energy and commerce committee What is the ideal market share for the US in the PCB manufacturing industry? The CHIPS Act and defining industrial policy Initiatives in developing a qualified workforce that can fill the new manufacturing jobs and all of the other jobs that come along with it to support the industry Sign up for the Electronic Design to Delivery Index to help guide you through supply chain turmoil Links and Resources: Sign up for the Electronic Design to Delivery Index L

The business development manager of J.A.M.E.S., Alexandre Schafer talks about the organization’s vision to push the Additively Manufactured Electronic technology to become more accessible to the industry.   Show Highlights: What is J.A.M.E.S. and how did Alexandre become involved in the organization? J.A.M.E.S (Jetted Additively Manufactured Electronic Sources) is an online community of professionals, stake holder, manufacturers who share the same vision of accelerating the AME technology Alexadre’s AHA moment was seeing a drone’s PCB created through AME process The current technology readiness level is currently between experimental and demonstration pilot phase Introducing new technology to the industry has it’s challenges: Influencing engineers’ mindset Which design tool to use? In an ideal world a tool with both ECAD and MCAD design capabilities is necessary–a fully working 3D auto router will be amazing Design standards are inexistent at the moment On another note, the lack of design standards opens

We are very delighted to have Dr. Min Zhang in this episode. Min is an independent EMC consultant based in the UK. Today, we'll be talking about EMC, both on board and off the board. It will be a very interesting discussion because we will look a little bit deeper at the system level of the board. Show Highlights: Zach met Min at EMCLive 2021 Let’s hear more about Min’s background and his early exposure to EMI issues Earlier in his career, he worked with big companies as a motor drive engineer and power electronics design engineer for 10 years He started his engineering consulting business, Mach One Design EMC Consultants 2 years ago His first experience dealing with EMI issues was at the university while doing research for his PhD The lack of education in the university in regards to EMI issues is one of the reasons that sparked Min’s interest in EMI The university he went to specializes in motor and power converter design, but did not offer any solutions in fixing the EMI issues Min recalls being fascina

How to deal with nuances in PCB design and manufacturing? In today’s episode, Dave Young the owner of Young Circuits Design and founder of BlueStamp Engineering, and I will discuss mitigating risk factors early in the stage of electronic design. Dave will also tell a story about his path to entrepreneurship as an engineer and his inspiration behind founding BlueStamp Engineering, a hands-on engineering program for high school students to design and create technology projects that they get to keep, from scratch! Listen, watch enjoy, and make sure to check the additional resources below. Show Highlights: Dave’s background, and the early days of his now 12-year designing firm He learned most of his skills from his previous position as a Senior Design Engineer at Keithley Instruments The world of innovative electronic design and hardware – the software, firmware, and hardware Expectations vs. reality in manufacturing Designers must know what’s going on in PCB manufacturing, know what’s reasonable to ask your ma

I am very honored to have Bert Simonovich, a very well-known expert in the signal integrity community, in today’s episode. Bert developed the "Cannonball-Huray" model used for transmission line loss modeling, which has been adopted in several popular EDA tools.   We will be discussing several topics relating to copper roughness, including different approaches to ensure signal integrity in your PCB design.   Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here.   Show Highlights: Bert shares his background and experience He did his microprocessor systems back in the late '70s and later worked at Bell-Northern Research in Ottawa, Canada In the 90s he transitioned to Nortel from where he specialized in backplane design and signal integrity He founded Lamsim in 2009 Bert retrospects using photo tools which is now the photo plotting with Gerbers. His experience helped him understand the mechanics of PCB construction A client’s demand led to extensive research involving dielectric material

Making electromagnetic analysis accessible to anyone in the industry is what inspired Yuriy to create SIMBEOR® Electromagnetic Signal Simulator. Yuriy Shlepnev is the founder and president of Simberian. In this episode, he will tell us about Simbeor simulation capabilities, and briefly educate us on rise times, signal integrity, and solving EMI. He will also show us the simulator in action and how it can be a lifesaver to PCB designers like you. Tune in, enjoy and don't forget to check the additional resources below. Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. Show Highlights: uriy talks about his background in computational electromagnetics and how he got started working on simulations for PCBs and magnetic analysis  He realized that the byte rates and data rates were increasing, and everything was getting into the microwave domain In 2006,  Simberian was founded as a project to make electromagnetic analysis accessible to anyone in the industry SIMBEOR® was created to make el

When you hear about 10-ounce copper PCBs, high current and high voltage come to mind. In this episode, we will have a deep dive discussion on designing heavy power boards with Mario Strano. Mario is the senior PCB designer at Nikola and also president of ECAD Central. He will share with us his 16 years of experience in PCB design and the migration services he provides through ECAD Central. Watch this episode or listen on the go. We’ve touched on many other interesting topics, such as setting up clearance and creepage rules and a 57-ounce copper board. Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. Show Highlights: Mario’s background and professional path as PCB Designer and Component Engineer He is currently the only PCB designer at Nikola His expertise includes but is not limited to designing 10-ounce copper boards, real heavy power boards, HMI boards, human-machine interface boards Setting up creepage and clearance rules for heavy copper was a challenge to Mario during his tr

In this OnTrack episode, Zach and Phil of Phil’s Lab Youtube channel exchange ideas on how they can stay on top of their PCB design game or learn new things. Phil Salmony, a successful youtube creator with 64.6K subscribers, shares with us how he was introduced to PCB design, his early career, and what got him to start his own Youtube channel. This is a fun episode. Watch it through the end and check out the additional resources below. Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. Show Highlights: Whiteboard – an essential piece for PCB design-related content PCB design education from the university, theories, and ideologies versus PCB design for the real world Phil shares that DSPs (Digital signal processors) are the coolest thing, and he has a dedicated section of them on his channel Zach and Phil exchange opinions about their consultation and PCB design jobs How do you go about learning new things? Zach and Phil have their share of different ways to acquire information to hel

Supply chain security and having access to trusted manufacturers in the US would be an ideal outcome of the Printed Circuit Board Act. IPC President and CEO John Michell talk about how the organization helps shape the current bipartisan proposal to help bring back PCB manufacturing in the US and how this can contribute to a globally resilient supply chain.   Watch the podcast here Get Your First Month of Altium Designer® for FREE   Show Highlights: John Mitchell briefly talks about his background and dives right into the topic, the 

In this episode, a returning guest Gabriel Goldstein shares the electronics behind the thrills in escape rooms. He also generously gives some valuable advice on finding your niche and starting your own electronics business. Gabriel was the former owner of Anidea Engineering and Escape Room Tech. Listen to this episode and be inspired by how he married two industries together and become the master of this very unique niche. Watch the episode here Gabriel’s background, he is the former owner of Anidea Engineering and Escape Room Tech The business of producing low-volume products - his first big project is an ARM9 with 16 mb of RAM, a PDA style learning device The fascinating technology in the escape room includes off-the-shelf surveillance cameras, keyboards, and maglocks. Gabriel describes the technology behind the “magic doors”They use RFID and developed their RS45-based networking system A successful escape room requires an extreme collaboration of multiple skill sets that include electronics guys, theater

Have you heard of assembly without solder? In this episode, Joseph (Joe) Fjelstad, founder and president of Verdant Electronics, talks about the Occam process.  Let’s hear about Joe’s 50 years of experience in the electronics industry and how he got started with solderless assembly for electronics. Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. Show Highlights: Joe talks about his background and previous roles in the industry, including his position as the educational director in the IPC and Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Research in the Soviet Union “Assembly without solder” Joe recollects how he arrived at the idea of a better way to build electronics – build a component board and put circuits on it. Joe shares how he came up with the Occam process and its benefits “It absolutely doesn't need to be for everything, but it can be for a lot of things, and it can make products that will be at once cheaper, better performing, lighter, more environmentally friendly.” Download Joe’s bo

To develop a resilient ecosystem, understanding the root cause of the PCB industry supply chain shortages is a must. In this episode, Travis Kelly, president and CEO of Isola Group will help us understand what is going on with the current supply chain in the electronics industry. Travis will also give us his insight into the new legislation introduced in the US Congress: Bipartisan Bill to Bring Electronics Manufacturing to America and Strengthen Supply Chains. Tune in, or listen on the go. Stay up to date with the latest discussion in the PCB Industry. Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. t Show Highlights: Travis's introduction and a brief overview of PCB manufacturing and fabrication in the United States About 20 years ago, the US produced roughly 26% of the world's PCBs; today, that number is down to 4% There used to be over 2000 fabricators in the late 1990s and early 2000 to less than 140 today What are the main drivers of the PCB industry supply chain shift? Th

What is the current state of the electronic industry? Dan Schoenfelder joins us today to discuss the most extreme problems the PCB design industry is currently facing: supply shortages, particularly the semi-conductor products and microcontrollers. Tune in, or listen on the go. Learn how to keep up with the industry challenges through Nexar and Octopart. Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. Show Highlights: Dan shares his background and role his role at Octopart and now as the Head of Nexar sales Problems with the supply chain continue; how are companies coping with the shortages in semi-conductor products and microcontrollers? What is lean manufacturing, and what drives an inflexible supply chain? The effect of the pandemic on manufacturing facilities is still very apparent and may continue through 2013 Dan discusses the many benefits of utilizing Octopart to find and access electronic components data easily Octopart is the search engine for electronics and makes a g

Learn by doing is what Bill Kolicoski, the creator of Taste the Code Youtube Channel advises everyone who wants to jump into the electronic design. Bill is a software developer passionate about making electronics design and engineering fun. Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. Show Highlights: Bill shares how he got started with his Youtube Channel, Taste the Code Bill recognizes that designing and building electronics is a perfect way to understand software or coding – making the code more tangible Making electronic design accessible for everyone is one of Bill’s missions in creating his channel Jumpstart to electronics design through learning by doing Software and hardware coexist–a software engineer should have an understanding of how hardware works It’s the eureka moments that help students understand how things work Understanding what happens in the code and the chip to make things come to life Bill emphasizes improving your design skills by exploring all pos

This episode will learn how a childhood dream can turn into reality through hard work, determination, and networking. Andrew Hartnett dreamt of working with NASA at a very young age. He will share with us exactly how he landed his Computer Engineer position in this very sought-after agency. Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. Get Your First Month of Altium Designer® for FREE Show Highlights: Andrew’s background, from his 3rd-grade drawing and high school robotics team to landing a co-op internship program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) He joined The First Robotics Team in high school A lot of networking and determination is what helps him land the co-op internship program He started working full-time in January 2010 Briefly discuss Upverter and the benefits of having high-school level educational programs for aspiring PCB designers What is NASA’s co-op internship program? Andrew describes the advantages of the co-op program over a typical internship Get exposur