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16 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2025 Dan Beeker on the Design Engineer of the Future Feature Interview by Andy Shaughnessy As technical director at NXP Semiconduc- tors, Dan Beeker specializes in EMC and signal integrity design techniques. He's known for his field-based design classes; you may remem- ber the cover of Meghan Trainor's "All About at Bass" that Dan and his daughter Breezy released in 2015 titled "All About e Space." Check it out on YouTube; it's funny, and it defi- nitely gets the point across. As we begin 2025, I contacted Dan to get his thoughts about the design engineers of the future. What will their jobs look like? Andy Shaughnessy: Dan, how will the typical PCB design engineer's job evolve over the next five to 10 years? Dan Beeker: e challenges will be driven by the changes in technology. Smaller IC geome- tries for transistors and packages and increased power supply requirements make the basic functional design more challenging. Evolving standards for reduced allowable radiated emis- sion levels and increased levels of immunity will impact compliance. A solid understanding of the underlying sci- ence of electromagnetic physics will be more critical than ever. Improvements in the design tool space may help, but until the tools are dielectric-aware and can manage the entire three-dimensional structure of the electronic control system, they will only provide false hope. Careful empirical evaluation of each design will still be the primary method for designing good PCBs.