Upcoming PCEA PCB Design Training Classes Announced

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – PCEA Training announced the winter/spring schedule for the Certified Professional Circuit Designer training and certification program. 

Classes will be held in successive weeks starting Jan. 20, Feb. 28 and May 9, 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.

The deadline to register for the class beginning Jan. 20 is Jan. 3. The deadline for the February class is Feb. 3. 

The instructor-led classes cover the gamut of printed circuit design engineering, from layout, place and route to specifications and materials to manufacturing methods. Schematic capture, signal integrity and EMI/EMC are also part of the comprehensive program.

There are no prerequisite requirements to enroll. Upcoming classes will be held online. All courses are led by experienced instructors.

Printed Circuit Engineering Professional was authored by Michael Creeden, Stephen Chavez, Rick Hartley, Susy Webb and Gary Ferrari, industry veterans who combined have more than 200 years’ experience designing and building PCBs for all types of applications.

The course includes an optional certification exam recognized by the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA).

For information about the course overview, class format, and materials to prepare in advance for the class, visit pceatraining.net/course-overview. For information about the instructors of the course and authors of the course material, visit pceatraining.net/instructors-authors.

To enroll, visit pceatraining.net/registration for the next available class or email pceatraining@pcea.net for additional information.

PCEA to Hold Conference and Exhibition in Detroit in June

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) will host a new technical conference and exhibition in June in Detroit for printed circuit designers, design engineers, fabricators and assemblers.

PCB Detroit will take place Jun. 2-3 on the campus of Wayne State University. It will include two days of technical sessions, plus a tabletop exhibition on Jun. 2.

Wayne State University is Michigan’s third-largest university, and a licensee of the PCEA Training Certified Printed Circuit Designer curriculum.

The conference will feature presentations on controlling noise, low layer count board design, using AI in hardware and PCB design, flex and rigid-flex materials and DfM, and HDI via design, among others.

For information on attending, please contact pcbdetroit@pcea.net. For information on exhibiting, please contact Frances Stewart.

PCEA Issues Call for Abstracts for PCB West 2025

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – Abstracts are sought for the PCB West 2025 technical conference taking place next fall in Santa Clara, CA. The conference, the largest of its kind in Silicon Valley, focuses on training and best practices for printed circuit board designers and design engineers, electronics hardware engineers, fabricators and assemblers.

The four-day technical conference will take place Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. The event includes a one-day exhibition on Oct. 1.

Papers and presentations of the following durations are sought for the technical conference: one-hour lectures and presentations; two-hour workshops; and half-day (3.5-hour) and full-day seminars. 

Preference is given to presentations of two hours in length or more, and no presentations of less than one hour will be considered. 

Abstracts of 150-500 words and speaker biographies should be submitted to PCEA. Papers and presentations must be noncommercial in nature and should focus on technology, techniques or methodologies related to printed circuit board design, fabrication, assembly, test, components or packaging, and additive manufacturing. 

Submit abstracts at pcbwest.com by Jan. 24, 2025. No emailed abstracts will be accepted. Submitters will be notified by early April if their abstract has been accepted. Presentations are due Sept. 5, 2025.

Speaker benefits: Presenters of accepted abstract(s) for the 2025 program receive the following event benefits.

• Complimentary access to the online proceedings
• Complimentary pass to the technical conference
• Invitation to the Speaker Reception

For more information about PCB West, visit pcbwest.com or contact conference director Mike Buetow.

2025 CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY NPI Award Registration Now Open

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) has opened registration for the 2025 New Product Introduction (NPI) Awards for electronics assembly equipment, materials and software suppliers. The deadline for submissions for the annual awards is Jan. 3, 2025.

To be eligible, entries must have been introduced to the market (any region) no earlier than Jan. 1, 2024. Register now at https://na.eventscloud.com/npi2025.

Colloquially referred to as the Engineer’s Choice Awards – a nod to the background and independence of the judges – the 18th annual NPI Awards recognize the leading new products for electronics assembly during the past 12 months. Recipients are selected by an independent panel of practicing industry engineers and are presented by CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY.

The 2024 winners included AIM Solder, Anda Technologies, Arch, ASYS Group, Brooks Automation, BTU International, CalcuQuote, Cetec ERP, Hanwha Techwin Automation Americas, Henkel, Indium, ITW EAE, Juki Automation Systems, Kurtz Ersa, Kyzen, Pemtron, PVA, StenTech, Tagarno, Vayo, ViTrox, and Weller Tools.

How it works. Entrants must submit a single registration form for each product and category entered. All entries must include a 250- to 1,000-word statement describing the product in the following terms:

• Creativity and innovation
• Compatibility with existing technology
• Cost-effectiveness
• Design
• Expected reliability
• Flexibility
• Expected maintainability/reparability
• Performance
• User-friendliness
• Speed/throughput.

Evaluations will be based on the above list.