Recorded conversations and interviews on electronics design and manufacturing with the editors of PCD&F/Circuits Assembly, brought to you by the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA)
Episodes
Thursday Jul 27, 2023
Thursday Jul 27, 2023
David Schild, executive director of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA), discusses the latest government policy and legislation for printed circuit board manufacturing in the US, the roadmap for government investment, the trade group's recent annual meeting in Washington, and "exposing the flaw" in the US Defense Department's procurement process.
PCBAA was founded in 2021 to advance US domestic production of PCBs and base materials. The organization is made up of corporate members of all sizes, and includes fabricators, assemblers and suppliers.
This episode of PCB Chat is sponsored by PCB West, The Largest Conference and Exhibition for Printed Circuit Board Design, Fabrication and Assembly in the Silicon Valley, coming September 19-22 to the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center.
Friday Jul 21, 2023
Friday Jul 21, 2023
Thermal interface materials are used for heat transfer in a variety of electronics applications.
On this episode of PCB Chat, Claire Wemp, Ph.D, a thermal applications engineer at DuPont, discusses TIM1 materials (and explains the difference between TIM1 and TIM2), when and where they are used, who specifies them, and how they work.
Wemp is also a member of the Society Women in Electronics, and in the second half of the podcast we talk about her experience in SWE, which dates to college, DuPont's role in recruiting, and how to bend the curve in attracting more women to STEM fields.
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
We all strive to build products that are reliable. If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you are concerned about or at least interested in reliability. Where does reliability start? Who is responsible for reliability? What types of reliability testing can be performed? Mike Konrad's guest on this episode will help answer these and other reliability-based questions.
Dr. Christopher Jackson is a leader, engineer and logistic specialist who has helped many organizations work toward realizing business goals through improving the reliability of their products and processes. He is cofounder of online training company IS4, founder of Acuitis Reliability, established the Center for the Safety and Reliability of Autonomous Systems (SARAS) at UCLA after retiring as a lieutenant colonel having served 17 years in the Australian Army, where he was senior reliability engineer. Dr Jackson completed his Ph.D. in reliability engineering at the University of Maryland in 2011.
Dr. Jackson has authored multiple reliability and management textbooks and teaches both professional education courses and post-graduate courses. Industries he has helped range from small satellites through to military vehicles. He is a Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) through the American Society of Quality (ASQ), a member of the Institute of Engineers, Australia (MIEAust) and a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng).
Dr. Jackson's contact information:
chris.jackson@acuitas.com
https://www.acuitas.com
Monday Jul 10, 2023
Monday Jul 10, 2023
The PCB/MCM design software market grew in the first quarter 2023, the ninth straight quarter of growth, according to the latest data from the ESD Alliance.
Mike Buetow speaks with Wally Rhines, ESD Alliance spokesperson, and Merlyn Bruncken, market intelligence director with Siemens Digital Industries, about the record quarter, booming employment in the sector, and why the recovery in Japan be lagging the rest of the world.
Wednesday Jun 28, 2023
Wednesday Jun 28, 2023
When it comes to circuit assemblies, defects result in one of two situations. The preferred result of a defect is to capture it on your factory floor and repair it before it ships to the customer. The second scenario is referred to as an escape. That’s when the board ships to the customer and fails in the field. This is a scenario, all assemblers dread and strive to prevent. One way to prevent escapes is through the use of automated inspection or AOI systems.
Mike Konrad's guests are Arif Virani, chief operating officer and cofounder of Darwin AI, and Bart Piwowar, CTO of Darwin AI, a manufacturer of innovative inspection systems.
Virani is a technology leader with over 20 years of experience in the industry. He spearheads the company’s mission to transform manufacturing with a new standard for quality inspection using AI. DarwinAI’s solutions have been implemented at top electronics manufacturers to increase quality and efficiency while reducing waste. DarwinAI was selected by CBInsights for its AI 100 annual list of the 100 most promising private AI companies in the world in both 2020 and 2021.
Before founding DarwinAI, Virani had a successful career in management consulting at McKinsey & Co., where he advised Fortune 500 enterprises on technology investments and transformation. He led several technology-enabled programs, including building and commercializing data and analytics capabilities. Virani started his career working as a software developer at various technology companies. In addition to his work at DarwinAI, Virani is an Advisory Board Member of NGEN Canada’s AI for Manufacturing Initiative. He has a master’s in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a bachelor’s in applied science (computer engineering) from the University of Waterloo.
Piwowar is an experienced product leader, leading high-performing product teams driven by data to deliver solutions that solve customer's problems. He has spent many years leading data science teams, applying Innovation methodologies, and working with emerging technologies to bring solutions in many disciplines. He graduated from University of Waterloo with a degree in physics and computing and followed with an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Piwowar's career interests range from AI product development, decision science and entrepreneurship.
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
It goes without saying finding talent is a big deal in electronics design and manufacturing.
John Watson is customer success manager at Altium, with more than 20 years' experience as a senior PCB designer. Watson also teaches classes on printed circuit design at Palomar Community College in San Marcos, CA.
We discuss the Printed Circuit Board Design and Advanced Printed Circuit Board Design curricula, other related courses offered at Palomar, and why he emphasizes hand routing over autorouting.
Palomar's website is palomar.edu.
Watson may be reached at jwatson@palomar.edu or 619-886-8860.
Watson will also participate on the Next-Generation Engineers panel at PCB West this year. The conference takes place Sept. 19-22, at the Santa Clara CA Convention Center. The panel takes place on Sept. 20, same day as the exhibition, and is free to attend; register at pcbwest.com.
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
Can reliability training be both entertaining and effective? The Manufacturing Game's Michelle Ledet Henley has a different approach to traditional training methods.
Henley has worked with The Manufacturing Game since 1998 as a developer of new simulations and training material. She has traveled worldwide in her capacity as a facilitator and trainer for The Manufacturing Game and other simulations developed by Ledet Enterprises. Henley has been instrumental in developing simulations with a focus on reliability, project management and distribution.
She began her career with KPMG Peat Marwick in San Francisco, and then worked for a real estate management and development firm in the Washington, DC area. Before joining The Manufacturing Game, Henley formed her own company, Innovative Interfaces, which provides computer programming services around the United States.
Henley has a bachelor's of business administration degree from the University of Texas - Austin in accounting and information services.
Thursday May 11, 2023
Thursday May 11, 2023
Mike Konrad's guest is Dr. James Whitfield. Dr. Whitfield is an associate professor of physics at Dartmouth. He earned a bachelor's of science and chemistry and mathematics from Morehouse University and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University in New York, Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology in Vienna and Gant University and Belgium, and he is currently an Amazon visiting academic.
Wednesday May 10, 2023
Wednesday May 10, 2023
Wally Rhines, the former chairman of Mentor Graphics and now spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, updates us on the latest PCB design software and semiconductor market trends (spoiler alert: sales were up again), and addresses why ECAD companies are hiring even in the face of layoffs among Big Tech.
He is joined by Merlyn Brunken, director of marketing strategic planning at Siemens Digital Industries Software to provide the quarterly report, which showed gains across a number of sectors and geographies.
Friday Apr 28, 2023
Friday Apr 28, 2023
Flux says every step of the electronic design process is slow, expensive, and error-prone. The startup company’s engineers think they have a solution: a browser-based PCB design platform and programmable simulator.
Matthias Wagner, CEO and cofounder, and Kerry Chayka, product expert, both veterans of PCB design with companies like Facebook and Apple, discuss the problems that led them to develop an all-encompassing tool that includes a programmable SPICE simulator for testing circuits with real parts and environments.