PCB West Keynote to Offer Path for Implementing AI in Electronic Design

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – Electronics design software architect Charles Pfeil will keynote the PCB West conference and exhibition in October, PCEA announced.

Pfeil’s talk, “AI Roadmap for PCB Layout: New Opportunities for PCB Designers,” illustrates the capabilities and methodologies that will be needed for AI success with complex PCB designs, with a focus on constraints, place and route. Success, he says, lies in balancing the growing capabilities of AI with the preservation of proprietary design knowledge and methodologies. His talk will take place Oct. 9 at 11 a.m. at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center.

“AI functionality for effective place and route of simple designs is currently available; however, using AI for place and route of complex designs is still in the first stages. But the ultimate goal of AI-driven PCB design tools is to replicate and potentially surpass the capabilities of experienced human designers, particularly for complex designs,” Pfeil notes.

“Communicating PCB design expertise and decisions to an AI program involves several steps, including knowledge extraction, representation, and the development of an appropriate system to leverage this knowledge. But significant challenges remain, particularly in capturing and applying the nuanced expertise of experienced designers and the unique methodologies of different companies.”

Over his 50-year career in the PCB industry, Pfeil has been a designer, owner of a service bureau, and had engineering management and product definition roles at Racal-Redac, ASI, Cadence, PADS, VeriBest, Mentor Graphics, and Altium. Most of his career was at Mentor Graphics, where he was a software architect focused on the advanced development of PCB design tools. He was the original product architect of Expedition PCB, and an inventor of Team PCB, XtremePCB, XtremeAR, and the Sketch Router. He is also the author of BGA Breakouts and Routing and High-Speed Constraint Values and PCB Layout Methods.

“Charles Pfeil is synonymous with electronics design automation,” said Mike Buetow, president of PCEA and conference chairman, PCB West 2024. “He has guided the development of two platforms in wide use today, and his presentation focuses on both the fundamental issues that are obstacles to AI implementation for complex designs, and the viable paths forward. Those interested in knowing how AI might change their jobs in a positive manner should not miss this keynote address.”

PCB West is the leading technical conference and exhibition in North America for electronics design, fabrication, assembly, and test engineers. It will take place Oct. 8-11 at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. The event includes a one-day exhibition on Oct. 9.

Susy Webb to Present Webinar on PCB Design Techniques

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – Susy Webb will present a new all-day webinar titled “Effective PCB Design Techniques” on Sept. 10, sponsored by PCEA.

Webb, a senior designer with 40 years of experience across a variety of industry sectors, will share ideas for setup, planning, and procedures that lead to efficient board design.

The all-day online class will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, with a one-hour break from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST.

“Years ago, someone new to designing printed circuit boards would have had access to other designers who worked with them in the same office, or what we often call ‘mentors,’” says Webb. “Today’s lack of dedicated designers, coupled with the trend toward electrical engineers designing their own boards – some quite infrequently – has created a gap in understanding of the entire design processes. This includes a lack of knowledge of the reasons why certain things need to be done, and how to implement those ideas within each new PCB design.”

This class was designed to discuss many of the tasks that are needed to create an effective PCB, including choosing quality parts, finding the rise time of signals, understanding where the energy flows within a PCB, deciding the orientation of parts, setting up routing and fanout grids, and the routing layers to use for different signals and busses. 

Also discussed will be procedures that seasoned designers use to make their design work efficient.

For more details: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4213104697774443360.

2024-25 Board of Directors Ballots Out

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – The ballot for the next PCEA board of directors term is available to members for voting. All PCEA members in good standing are eligible to vote for the board of directors.

In accordance with PCEA Bylaws, section 9.3, directors shall be elected at the annual meeting of the membership for two-year terms. In accordance with the association bylaws, candidates for the board of directors were solicited from the active membership earlier this year, and the PCEA Board’s Nominating Task Force has nominated candidates for each director position.

PCEA members may vote for up to 12 individuals for the board. The following link may be used to access the ballot: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/pceaboard2024. The deadline for voting is Aug. 2.

To see the candidates’ biographies, please click here.

The new board will be formally announced at the next PCEA annual meeting, scheduled for Oct. 8 from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center, in conjunction with PCB West.