April 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 81
5
Altium to Release Integrated
Documentation Solution for
Altium Designer
Altium is scheduled to re-
lease a new documentation
workflow available exclu-
sively in their flagship PCB
design platform, Altium Designer 16.1. Draftsman
provides PCB designers with a unified documen-
tation solution with customizable drawing views,
documentation templates, and a fully complete
design to documentation workflow in Altium De-
signer 16.1.
6
Mark Thompson:
It's All about Communication
In engineering support at
Prototron Circuits, Mark
Thompson has seen it all. He
ensures that each design is
manufactured the way the
designer intended, even if
the CAD data is not crystal
clear. Barry Matties and Andy Shaughnessy talked
with Thompson about why communication is par-
amount when designing and prototyping boards.
7
IPC APEX EXPO:
Electrolube to Educate
PCB Designers on Coatings
Columnist Phil Kinner, tech-
nical director of coatings for
electrolube, discusses a pa-
per on condensation testing
that he presented at IPC APeX
eXPO, and his company's
plans to educate PCB design-
ers about conformal coatings to help them avoid
problems during manufacturing.
8
EDA Industry Revenue Down
1.9% in Q415; PCB/MCM
Drops 6.2%
According to the
eDA Consortium
(eDAC) Market Sta-
tistics Service, eDA
industry revenue de-
clined 1.9% for Q4 2015 to $2.06 billion, com-
pared to $2.10 billion in Q4 2014. But PCB/MCM
revenue dropped 6.2% during the same period.
The four-quarters moving average, which com-
pares the most recent four quarters to the prior
four quarters, increased by 5%.
9
IPC APEX EXPO:
Hofer Discusses the Pros
and Cons of Backdrilling
General Manager James Hofer of
Accurate Circuit engineering dis-
cusses the process of backdrilling
vias, including the benefits and
drawbacks. Backdrilling can im-
prove signal integrity, but it can
create stubs that may act as unwanted antennas.
J
Beyond Design:
Faster than a Speeding Bullet
In optical communica-
tions, electrons don't
carry the signal—pho-
tons do. And we all
know that photons trav-
el at the speed of light.
So surely, optical fibers must transmit information
much faster than copper wires or traces on a mul-
tilayer PCB? Actually, photons and electrons trans-
mit data at the same speed. The limiting factor is
the relative permittivity (dielectric constant) of the
medium in which the signal propagates.
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