Chapter News
Orange County. In February, the Orange County Chapter held a Lunch ’n Learn meeting, exploring advances in the technology of embedding resistors and capacitors which can benefit many designs today.
Bob Carter, vice president of business development & technology at Oak-Mitsui Technologies, spoke on embedded capacitance and improved power delivery. He provided an overview of the different types of embedded capacitance as well as fundamentals of power distribution network design for high-speed digital circuits. The talk covered how it is used in various types of practical applications such as MEMs and RF modules. Using ultra-thin power and ground plane pairs as embedded capacitance layers provide superb electrical performance with regards to charge delivery. There are particular benefits for reducing or mitigating noise and improving logic transitions. Performance, manufacturability, reliability and cost analysis were discussed.
John Andresakis, business development director of Quantic Ohmega, presented on designing with thin-film embedded resistor foil. His talk gave an overview of thin-film embedded resistors and their applications, showing advantages and reliability of designing with that technology. Improvements in signal integrity can be achieved and embedded resistors can eliminate many SMT components to free up surface space while improving performance and reliability. He discussed power handling of embedded resistors to aid in thermal management as well as various types of designs, including RF and microwave applications, which can greatly benefit from adopting embedded resistor technology.
National News
Free content review. The Education Committee’s Free Starter Content Task Group this month is reviewing an outline of the materials that will be available through PCEA.
Foreign language translation. We have a proposal to add Chinese subtitles to certain presentations on the Printed Circuit University online training platform. The goal is to be able to offer these presentations in multiple languages by year-end. There are more than 120 hours of technical content on the site. 
