62 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2023
Last year, IPC held its first-ever design competition at IPC
APEX EXPO in San Diego. PCB designers from around the
world competed in a series of heats during the months
before the show, culminating in a showdown on the show
floor between the top three finalists. This year, the competi-
tion is back for its sophomore year. I asked Patrick Crawford,
manager of design standards and related programs for IPC,
to "layout" the details on the design contest.
At Sunstone we concentrate on the current best practices for keeping our
employees safe while keeping quality work as a top priority, and provid-
ing a remote work option for our employees has been one such effective
strategy. It brings me great joy to report that, so far, we have effectively
maintained both the health and employment of all our employees. As I was
recently reflecting on this, I decided to ask Al Secchi, our global customer
support and sales manager, what he has learned professionally these past two years.
Controlled imped-
ance traces are
necessary on
some PCBs for
high-speed signal
transmission. The goal with controlled
impedance traces is to design the
proper propagation delay into the
trace. On boards with an antenna,
impedance matching is required for
a reliable signal. Other boards may
have components that require a
specific propagation delay in order
to perform calculations.
Altium keeps its eyes on the designers of the
future. The company has been working
with colleges and universities for years, providing
free seats of Altium Designer for the next gen-
eration of PCB designers and design engineers.
They offer a variety of other educational programs
as well, including Upverter classes and a design
competition that aims
to address environ-
mental change.
Here, Rea Callender,
Altium's VP of
education, discusses
its educational
programs.
TOP TEN
Connect the Dots: The Recipe for Customer Service Success
Fresh PCB Concepts:
Designing Controlled
Impedance PCBs
The Battle of the Boards
EDITOR'S
PICKS
Altium Focuses on Design Education
