Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1004549
JULY 2018 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 13 Each class attendee needs to come away feel- ing like they understood the material. If not, I hope they will ask for clarification in class or email me later. I always give them my email address. I want people to understand so that they are able to go back and do good work! This could easily be a week-long class if some- body wanted to sponsor it, and I have done it that way. There is just so much information to discuss. As the senior designers start to retire, there's going to be less mentoring available for the newer people who design boards. Who's going to teach them? Shaughnessy: Right. Some senior designers started their careers by shadowing another designer for six months. But in most compa- nies, there's no mentoring. Webb: It's very different now. And there needs to be more of an emphasis placed on that while there are still designers around to help the newer people. So going to classes and glean - ing some knowledge from the class, even if you don't understand at all, is a way to say, "I heard such and such; am I supposed to do that here, or is this more important?" As I mentioned, the EEs are very good at what they do, but follow - ing the signal around from layer to layer of the board is not necessarily anything they were ever taught and the environment on different layers of the board can be very different. an engineer—to get some quality training, and that doesn't mean EE training. It means train- ing at conferences and classes that are offered around the country for signal integrity, EMI, DFM, HDI, etc., so that they understand what they should do, and why. Shaughnessy: Is this generally people who are sent by their company, or are these people who just decided on their own that they need to go to this class? Webb: Personally, I always did it on my own, but I think I'm not typical in that respect. I think people will ask their companies and their companies will say, "No, we can't send design- ers, but we'll send the engineers." And that's unfortunate. I will use the term "rules" loosely here, but there are rules that need to be fol- lowed. I use it loosely because of course we have to break the rules a lot of times. The engi- neering rules may break the assembly rules and the assembly rules may break the fabrica- tion rules, so we have to know what the rules are all about (and their priority on any particu- lar board) to know how and when to break them. Again, not a random thing. As I said, I use the term rules loosely because it's not set in stone that you have to ALWAYS do things a certain way. Shaughnessy: I bet the engineers probably ask different questions during the class. Webb: They do. Engineers will ask more technical questions which is great. Unfortunately, some peo- ple don't realize what they don't know, so they don't know what questions to ask. I do my best to present what and why of the most important issues, and of course allow as much time as possible for any questions. On the evaluations, sometimes participants will say that it's not technical enough. But the evaluations of the people who are just coming into the business will say it's way over their head.