82 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2023
The industry lost one of the good ones when Martin
Cotton passed away. Martin not only spent 50 years
on the cutting edge of PCB design, he was also, as the
axiom goes, "a real character." Everyone who knew
Martin has a favorite story about him. He was just a
hell of a guy.
Doug Sober helped pioneer the development of IPC's first
slash sheets in 1996 for IPC-4101, Specification for Base
Materials for Rigid and Multilayer Printed Boards and we
asked him to discuss slash sheets—what they are, what they
are not, and why PCB designers might benefit from an IPC
materials guide developed specifically for designers.
Columnist Kelly Dack has had a pretty
wide range of experiences. As a PCB
designer, he has sat behind the desk at
an NPI company, an OEM, a fabricator,
and now an EMS provider. We asked
him to share a few thoughts on the
materials selection process and how it
could be improved.
I recently spoke with Fabian Winkler, product
marketing manager for Altium 365. He and
guest speaker Casey Sirotnak of Forrester
co-hosted a free webinar on May 17 titled
"Unveil the Total Economic Impact of Altium
365." Fabian dis-
cussed the focus
of the webinar
and some of the
benefits of this
environment that
allows ECAD and
MCAD engineers
to collaborate
seamlessly.
TOP TEN
Slash Sheets and Material Selection
Stop Over-specifying
Your Materials
Guru & Geezer: A Celebration of the Life of Martin Cotton
EDITOR'S
PICKS
May 17 Webinar: The Economic
Impact of Altium 365
