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42 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2022 Q&A with Paul Cooke e job of the PCB designer is becoming more complicated every day. Designers are now acting as what amounts to project manag- ers for the PCB, and they must be familiar with the many trade-offs that happen during manu- facturing, many of which they can control dur- ing the design cycle. Paul Cooke, the senior director of business development for Ventec International Group, is presenting a class at IPC APEX EXPO 2023 that looks at workflow challenges in fabrica- tion, and the myriad drivers that can affect yield, reliability, and cost. Here he discusses the details of this Professional Development course, what he hopes attendees will take away, and why designers and design engineers would benefit from this class. Workflow Challenges in Fabrication Paul, tell us a little about the Professional Development Course on process flow and defects you are teaching at the show. I put this course together to give design- ers, engineers, etc., a more in-depth look at what happens to their design as it goes through the fabrication process. It looks at how the fabricator adjusts processes to meet the design intent and what happens when it goes wrong; it's like a [IPC] 2221, 6012, 600, and