Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1174596
12 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2019 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team Design instructors Rick Hartley and Mike Creeden recently spoke with the I-Connect007 Editorial Team about the current landscape of the PCB design segment. This wide-ranging conversation also focused on the next genera- tion of designers, some promising new lami- nates, and the need for more communication and collaboration between designers and fab- ricators. Andy Shaughnessy: Where do you see things right now as far as technology, software, and design? Rick Hartley: The first thought that comes to mind is that things continue to reach higher speeds. Lee Ritchey does a class now about how to design up to 32 gigabits, which is al- most the norm. Five to 10 years ago, people were concerned about having to do 2–6-giga- bit designs, and there was a lot of chattering of teeth and wrenching of hands from people who were heading that direction. Now, people do that routinely, which also drives addi- tional interference and EMI problems; I see this on a constant basis. I've had companies contact me re- cently, saying, "We have noise problems, and we have no idea how to solve them. Will you work with us on this?" I also read an interview recently with Dan Beeker, who said, "It has reached the point in the automo- tive world where people design PCBs and ex- pect to fail EMI testing." Barry Matties: Why do you think they expect it to fail? Hartley: They don't know how to design cir- cuit boards and haven't figured out how to yet. There was a time when even though things were fast, they weren't so blazingly fast that if you were doing a smaller board, you were lucky enough that the lines on the board weren't distributed, the power distribu - tion wasn't so c r i t i c a l , e t c. ; Traversing the Design Landscape With Hartley and Creeden 12 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2019