Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - Current Issue

Material Gains

Alun Morgan … So let’s challenge old design concepts.

As Martin Cotton begins to enjoy retirement (it seems that’s his word for embarking on complex wireless projects he’s always wanted to explore), I have been invited to take over this spot and share my perspectives on the substrates industry. You may know I have recently become technology ambassador for Ventec after starting my career as a research physicist and spending many years in the PCB business, most recently as chairman of the EIPC.

As a technology ambassador, my role begins with encouraging designers and fabricators to think creatively at the substrate level. By taking advantage of critical innovations happening here, it’s possible to deliver new products that deliver much better functionality, form factor and reliability than their predecessors. This presents tremendous opportunities to leapfrog competitors technically by challenging accepted practices and creating new products that really stand out.

Read more: The Timeless Laws of Thermodynamics are Immutable...

Martin Cotton Our retiring columnist reflects on five decades in the PCB industry.

Read more: The Value of Experience, Design Gurus, and Attention to Detail

Martin Cotton Applying experience to design to build better boards.

Some things change, some stay the same. The Pretenders were almost certainly not thinking about making PCBs, but it certainly applies to this industry.

As my musical musing may suggest, I’ve been here a long time – just over 50 years, in fact. (Chrissie Hynde was still at art school when I started.) I’ve seen many changes. I even caused a few! (More on that later.) But some things stay the same, and one of these is the disconnect between PCB designers and the fabricators who do the making.

Read more: Engineers: The ‘A’ in CAD stands for Aided

Martin Cotton How smoother surfaces and rounder edges help keep us all safer and more connected.

Making the impossible possible with advanced technology is a frequently recurring theme in advertising today. It seems the wider world has finally “got” science; well-known high-tech brands are comfortable explaining how their technologies are enabling new and fantastic smartphone features, more immersive gaming and TV viewing experiences, safer more relaxing travel in our increasingly autonomous vehicles, among others.

Of course, we in the electronics industry are intimately familiar with the underlying innovations enabling these previously unimaginable new experiences. As digital computing capabilities advance at the speed of Moore’s Law – or, in some cases, even faster – system capabilities are making incredible gains, while at the same time physical size, power consumption and cost are reduced, resulting in new generations of products at once more user-friendly and affordable.

Read more: Engineering Multi-GHz Systems is Driving Design to Deeper Levels