PCEA Current Events
NATIONAL NEWS

PCEA Detroit Technical Schedule Announced

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – Printed Circuit Engineering Association’s new technical conference and exhibition in June in Detroit will feature presentations on controlling noise, low layer count board design, solving routing problems in digital boards, among others.

Other talks will cover design guidelines associated with unique RF features, using AI in hardware and PCB design, PCB cost drivers, flex and rigid-flex materials, common design errors caught by fabrication (and how to prevent them), designing with embedded materials, tin whisker analysis and HDI via design.

The speakers include Rick Hartley, Susy Webb, Dan Beeker, Ethan Pierce, Dave Lackey and Stephen Chavez, among others.

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.

For information on attending, visit pcea.net/pcb-detroit. For information on exhibiting, please contact Frances Stewart.Article ending bug

Dale Lee to Present on DfA for Mizzou Chapter this Month

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – The new PCEA Missouri chapter will sponsor an online talk on design for manufacturing by Dale Lee on Feb. 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CST.

Lee, a staff DfX process engineer at Plexus, asserts DfM needs to migrate away from general assembly design guidelines primarily driven by general assembly equipment/process capability toward component/printed board-specific driven assembly. Manufacturing by design, he says, is now required to match the assembly/test processes to the functional requirements of the design and address when traditional material limitations, industry standards and assembly tolerances are not adequately addressed with traditional DfM reviews.

To register for the free webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/506313452873561692.Article ending bug

PCEA Releases ‘AI for PCB Design’ White Paper

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – PCEA in January released the groundbreaking keynote presentation from PCB West 2024, “AI Roadmap for PCB Layout: New Opportunities for PCB Designers.”

Presented by electronics computer-aided design software (ECAD) architect Charles Pfeil, the presentation highlights current limitations of artificial intelligence and necessary steps to address them to overcome these challenges. It illustrates the capabilities and methodologies that will be needed for AI success with complex PCB designs, with a focus on constraints, place and route.

The talk was designed to inspire collaboration among EDA companies, customers and designers to create AI capabilities that solve complex PCB layouts. Success, Pfeil says, lies in balancing the growing capabilities of AI with the preservation of proprietary design knowledge and methodologies.

The pdf may be downloaded at no charge at Printed Circuit University under the White Papers section (https://printedcircuituniversity.com/index.php/free-content/white-papers).

“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.Article ending bug

PCEA Current Events

ASSOCIATION NEWS

PCB West abstracts due. This is the last call for abstracts for the PCB West 2025 technical conference. The four-day technical conference will take place Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. Abstracts of 150-500 words and speaker biographies should be submitted at pcbwest.com.

Designer education classes. Certified Professional Circuit Designer training and certification classes will be held in successive weeks starting 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 for the February class is Feb. 7.

The live, 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.

For information about the course overview, class format, and materials to prepare for the class, visit pceatraining.net/course-overview. To enroll, visit pceatraining.net/registration for the next available class or email pceatraining@pcea.net for additional information.

Annual meeting. The annual PCEA meeting will be held Sept. 30 during PCB West at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. An update on all association programs, plus the annual awards, will be presented.Article ending bug

CHAPTER NEWS

Missouri. The new PCEA Missouri chapter will sponsor a talk on DfA by Dale Lee, staff DfX process engineer at Plexus, on Feb. 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CST.

Portland, OR. A big shout-out to Tony Lentz from FCT Solder for joining us in January to talk about low-temperature solder. His presentation can be downloaded here.

Our next meeting is Feb. 20 at 12 p.m. PST. Contact Stephan Schmidt at stschmidt@pcea.net for details.

San Diego. The chapter is planning on hosting a one-hour presentation at a local library in February. Our planned presenter is a material vendor that has some unique additive materials. Contact Luke Hausherr at lucashausherr@gmail.com for details.Article ending bug