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10 The PCB Magazine • April 2017 Next is a most interesting discussion we had with three fabricators making high-speed PCBs. They are Gerry Partida with Summit Intercon- nect, Joe Menning of All Flex Flexible Circuits and James Hofer at Accurate Circuit Engineer- ing—definitely guys worth listening to and reading about. We've been working to hear more from Eu- ropean PCB fabbers, and next up we have an article from Optiprint, a company specializing in RF and microwave PCBs. Jim Francey and Terry Bateman give us a wonderful dissertation on the technology requirements for millime- ter-wave interconnects and antennas covering materials choices as well as circuit design and manufacturing requirements. We had a great opportunity to speak with TTM's Craig Davidson about embedded optical interconnects and we present that conversa- tion. TTM is far along this path and Craig gives a great overview of the technology and what drives it forward. Well, that's a lot of heavy-duty technical info to take in. Let's move off topic to other no less important tidbits from a few of our colum- nists. Gardien's Todd Kolmodin (aka Testing Regarding which traditional markets are seeing the most growth of high-speed construc- tions, it appears that communications is leading the pack. But Figure 3 shows that, when com- bined, military/aerospace applications are right up there. Automotive lags but we can expect that, as the autonomous car begins to take hold, there will be a big jump in that area. Which makes one begin to wonder about the various markets that increasingly overlap: For instance, dashboard electronics in an automobile could be classified as part of the automotive, comput- er, communications, and consumer industries. Judging from what we learned from Dan Fein- berg's recent CES show report, "CES: Disruptive Technologies," medical might also be on that list. Of course, I realize they still fall under the automotive jurisdiction. Let's get to it and I'll tell you what's in store this month. We start off with Sidney Cox of Cox Con- sulting, a long-time flex enthusiast from the (DuPont) materials side. He brings us up to date on materials for high-speed flex circuits—one of those growing markets, as you learned last month. FASTER, FASTER, FASTER… OR THE NEED FOR SPEED, MORE SPEED! Figure 2.