Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1190860
46 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2019 learning the art of PCB design. Then, do they have the aptitude to pick it up and the attitude to dig in, learn, and keep learning? There's a lot to learn. Our best designers, even with years of experience, continue to learn every day. It's not, "I'm now a senior PCB designer. I know what I need to do." The best designers recognize that to be the best and add the most value in their companies, they need to contin- ue learning. Shaughnessy: We certainly need more mentors in the design world. Miller: We need to mentor younger people to replace those who are going to retire. We need to make the mentor-trainee connection so we can teach them not only the design skills of PCB layout but also professional communi- cation and problem-solving skills. Mentoring helps to facilitate a broader level and faster pace of learning. Matties: Is there anything that we haven't talk- ed about that you feel like we should be shar- ing with the industry? Miller: What has become an interesting trend is that PCB layout is more than just physical de- sign skills; it is influenced by signal and pow- er integrity simulations and thermal analysis. There are lots of challenges that go into a suc- cessful design, and the upfront analysis and simulations enable the designer to be much more likely to be successful. The days of de- signing, measuring, figuring out what we did wrong, and fixing don't cut it today; that's not efficient, and you can miss your market win- dow if the board design needs to be redone because of crosstalk or voltage drop. We per- form more signal and power integrity simula- tions and thermal analysis as part of our de- sign process now than ever before. Five years ago, it used to be mostly signal integrity for high-speed designs, but now it often requires power integrity and thermal analysis. Matties: We were talking about design review, but maybe there's a pre-design review meeting where people can also come to your organiza- tion before they embark on their journey. Miller: Yes, particularly with complex PCB de- signs. They require some detailed planning be- fore you even start the design to get the re- sults you expect. Floorplanning the design is important; it's a collaborative effort between the design engineer and the layout designer when we do these complex designs. It requires design rules and guidelines, crisp mechanical data, placement guidance, stackup selection, and the use of HDI. All of these factors need to be carefully reviewed before the layout begins. Matties: And collaboration is something that people have been talking about for many years but seem not to follow through with. Do you see more collaborative efforts out there? Miller: Absolutely, even to the point where we work with a number of customers where their own layout team works on a design, passes it to us, and then we work on it, pass it back to them, and then they work on it. We have truly tried to become an extension of our customer's team in a seamless way, and it works. Matties: When I look at the reasons for com- ing to a design service like yours, it's because you have a broader pool to draw from for that knowledge rather than relying on one designer. As you pointed out, there's so much to know today, and no one designer can know at all.