Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1494346
54 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2023 IPC Design Competition Wrap-up at's right. Unlike last year, all the competi- tors this year were given the opportunity for a one- to two-hour individual session with me on Monday evening before the competition. I also provided a two-hour cram session where we reviewed not only the tool, but all the different features and technologies that we have to use. So, although they may never have routed rigid- flex before, I introduced them to it and some of the issues they would be involved with. Shaughnessy: Who was the winner? e winner was Sathishkumar Vijayakumar of Tessolve, one of our finalists from India. He did quite well in the work that he was able to complete. He showed good technique, com- Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team e IPC Design Competition took place during IPC APEX EXPO 2023, with five final- ists competing—a far cry from the original 49 entries last fall. Aer the competition was over, we spoke with Kris Moyer, the IPC instructor who created the design used in the competi- tion and served as a design advisor and judge for the event. We asked Kris to give us a quick wrap-up of the competition, as well as his thoughts on this year's design, which none of the finalists com- pleted. Andy Shaughnessy: Kris, would you give us a brief rundown on the design competition? To provide a better challenge for our com- petitors, we added some additional levels of complexity over last year's design. We had five finalists, three here at IPC APEX EXPO, plus the two finalists from our India branch. We ran them through the design yesterday, and we saw some very interesting designs. We came down to one clear winner, although I will say it was very close between the first and sec- ond place. As far as complexity, this year we ended up with a multilayer rigid-flex board incorpo- rating several more advanced complexities: sequential lamination, HDI, advanced packag- ing, controlled impedance, high-speed digital design, and power distribution design. Our competitors didn't finish, but they showed a lot of excellent technique and capability. Shaughnessy: Some said that they never worked with rigid-flex before. Kris Moyer 54 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2023