Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1493016
REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I I-CONNECT007 125 IPC design instructor Kris Moyer created this year's design and served as one of the judges. He acknowledged that this year's design put the competitors to the test. Some of the competi- tors had never designed rigid-flex before. "At this year's design competition, we added some additional levels of complexity com- pared to last year's event to give a better chal- lenge to our competitors," said Moyer. "We ended up with a multilayer rigid-flex board that incorporated several more advanced complexities—sequential lamination, HDI, advanced packaging, controlled impedance, high-speed digital design, and power distri- bution design, offering a layer of complexity beyond last year's design." "We saw some very interesting design strate- gies and techniques," Moyer continued. "We were able to come down to one clear win- ner, though I will say that it was very close between first and second place. Sathishku- mar Vijayakumar did quite well in the work he was able to complete. He showed very good technique, and the broadest range of features and methodologies. Adam Thorvaldson also had a good amount of design complexity; it was very close between first and second place." Next year's IPC Design Competition is set for IPC APEX EXPO 2024 in Anaheim, and orga- nizers are already making plans. "Patrick and I are talking about several dif- ferent concepts for next year—the time allot- ted for the design, training on the tools, and which tools will be available to use," said Moyer. "We'll have more under- standing in a month or so after we flesh it out." Let's all congratulate Sathishkumar Vijayakumar and the rest of the design competitors for sticking it out over this months-long competi- tion. S&T Read the interview with Sathishkumar Vijayakumar at PCB Design007.