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OCTOBER 2020 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 31 ent for me, and modeling and circuit simula- tion are a different game. We're talking about using Maxwell's equations to extract the elec- trical components of the system, as well as using circuit theory to predict how the volt- ages and the currents are going to behave on a circuit that typically may have tens of millions of transistors. That's the challenge. That's where pathfinding comes into play. Pathfinding is the solution to co-design in the sense that once you put everything together, you have something that you can refer to as a pathfinding methodology. Some of the things it will do include unified workflow, partition- ing, floor planning, the capability to create the abstract package models, etc. As you optimize the process, you also optimize the cost. Some- how, the cost has to be thrown in, and the knowledge of the existing technologies that are available to you must be implemented in the pathfinding methodology, as well as enabling the interaction of the design tools from the dif- ferent EDA vendors. Those are the key components that we exam- ined. There's also a new section added for thermal-aware co-design. We have a section on co-design for architecture and silicon pho- tonics. We also have this matrix that describes the interaction between the different chapters, which is very important. The presentation also shows what the priori- ties are. We come from the simulation group, so co-design must have a tight interaction with simulation, and then there's IoT, 5G, and RF. Automotive co-design can play a major role. Shaughnessy: This has been very helpful. Thank you for your time and insights, José. Schutt-Ainé: I'm glad to know you find it use- ful. The difficulty with putting this together is that most of us are experts in only one disci- pline, so trying to assemble a group of experts to write on co-design is hard. In my case, I don't know much about placement and rout- ing, so I had help from co-writers. DESIGN007 With a conventional electric guitar pickup, string vibra- tions cause the electromagnetic field to oscillate, induce a voltage in the coil, and generate an electric signal. The team's circuit board works the same way. "With typical pickups, the wire coils often produce undesired feedback and need to be potted with wax or a polymer," said French, professor of mechanical engineer- ing technology. "Our circuit board provides an alternative that is easier to produce with manufactured consistency." Davin, French and Smith worked with the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercial- ization to patent the technology. A U.S. patent has been granted. (Source: Purdue Polytechnic) What makes a guitar electric? With a skilled person playing, any performance can be powerful, but for the moment, consider the mechanical aspects of the instru- ment itself. Traditional electric guitars have a "pickup," a magnetic transducer made with miles of copper wire coiled around magnets via a tedious, time-consuming process. Purdue Polytechnic's Davin Huston and Mark French, along with Kathryn Smith, a former graduate student in Huston's lab, have been studying ways to improve the pro- cess, making the finished products better for both players and manufacturers. They created a flexible, printed circuit board that imitates the conventional copper wire configu- rations inside electric guitars. "We came up with a new approach to the electric gui- tar pickup, the magnetic transducer that helps create the musical sound," said Davin Huston, assistant professor of practice in engineering technology. "Our circuit boards can be printed in large quantities and fit inside just about any electric guitar, which simplifies the manufacturing process but keeps the sound quality and reliability." Purdue Team's PCB Design Improves Electric Guitars