Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1449048
36 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2022 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team As technology has evolved over the years, the milestones in PCB design have changed as well. While we look at the past and future of the design process, it's instructive to review the way that design milestones have iterated along the way. We asked Happy Holden, Kelly Dack, and Bob Tise to share their thoughts on establish- ing productive design process milestones, and what they mean to the PCB design- ers and engineers of today and tomorrow. ey also discuss how designs can go awry if these "signposts" in the design cycle are not obeyed. Barry Matties: Happy, why don't you start by telling us about your thoughts on milestones. Happy Holden: Here's how I'm using the term milestone. At Hewlett Packard, we had to establish a standardized printed circuit design process, because PC layout was merged out of several product divisions, with a few dif- ferent design philosophies because of differ- ent types of products. We were manufacturing the printed circuit boards, but they decided to merge us under the manufacturing umbrella instead of the design umbrella, because all pro- cesses in Hewlett Packard were with their own segment of the corporation, with an executive VP who happened to have a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. We shared part of our structure with the IC manufacturing and integrated circuit design. I only accepted the job if I could increase the salary of our designers. By increasing their sal- ary, I could now also require courses in skills improvement over time as part of their job description. Everybody wanted to do this differently. ey all had the belief that printed circuit design was not something that you can stan- dardize. But I said, "at's one reason that you're here, and not in your product division, because we believe you can standardize it into