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JUNE 2018 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 9 Andy Shaughnessy is managing editor of Design007 Magazine. He has been covering PCB design for 18 years. He can be reached by clicking here. and a good 3D EDA tool is a requirement for laying out multiple PCBs today. Fortunately, most of the EDA tools of today have multi-board design capabilities, and 3D functionality plays a big role. Interconnect man- agement, data management, concurrent design, and ECAD-MCAD co-design functions also help bring multi-board design into the mainstream. For our June issue, we have a variety of fea- tures that are chock-full of multi-board design information. In our first interview, Dave Wiens of Mentor discusses multi-board design tech- niques, from a 30,000-foot view down to a nuts-and-bolts board level, including the vari- ous trade-offs that occur throughout the design cycle. Zuken's Bob Potock provides a techni- cal article on the 3D convergence of multi- board PCB and IC packaging design, and the importance of ECAD and MCAD collaboration. Finally, we interviewed Ben Jordan of Altium, who breaks down many of the challenges related to multi-board design, and some of the techniques that can simplify complex designs. As Ben says, "It's not a complicated concept." From our monthly contributors, we have Barry Olney of In-Circuit Design who explains DDR3 and DDR4 fly-by topology termination and routing, while John Coonrod of Rogers Corporation discusses exceptions designers might encounter when comparing material data sheets. And Jade Bridges of Electrolube shines a spotlight on the selection of thermal management materials. To wrap things up, we have an article from Chang Fei Yee of Keysight Technologies that outlines the best methods for achieving signal integrity during layer transition in high-speed boards. As we head into the summer, take the time to download a PDF of Design007 Magazine to read on the beach. We'll keep bringing you all of the design news and technical information that you need! DESIGN007 A Laser that Can Smell like a Hound University of Adelaide researchers have created a laser that can "smell" different gases within a sample. Applications for the new device lie not just in environ- mental monitoring and detecting industrial contamina- tion, but may eventually be used to diagnose disease by "smelling" the breath. The researchers liken the ability of the laser to differ- entiate between different gas compounds in a sample to the sensitive nose of a bloodhound. But rather than smell, the device uses patterns of light absorption to measure the composition of the sample. From the University's Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), the researchers report in the journal Physical Review Applied that the laser can measure the amount of carbon dioxide in a gas sample in under one second, with high accuracy and precision. "The ability to rapidly measure gas composition to such high accuracy is cutting edge," says lead author Sarah Scholten, PhD candidate. The device exploits a Nobel-prize winning technol - ogy, developed by US and German scientists, called an "optical frequency comb." This laser comb gener- ates millions of different light frequencies or colours at once. The researchers pass this special light through a sample of gas where each gas molecule absorbs a dis - tinctive set of colours. The pattern of light absorption is a unique fingerprint of the gas composition of the sample. "This first work aims at atmospheric monitoring, however, the technique is broadly applicable and offers an avenue for near-universal concentration measure - ments," says Dr. Chris Perrella, postdoctoral fellow.