Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1534120
mission lines may well work with standard loss FR-4 materials. ere are design tools such as Polar's SpeedStack, to which Ventec supplies detailed performance data to allow precise modeling of designs and material selection prior to manufacture. We strongly recommend using such design tools to assist in the design process and make sure that appropriate mate- rials are selected at an early stage. Basically, every RF material set brings its own pros and cons, and the designer needs to understand all of these considerations. Exactly. Glass-reinforced substrates add micro Dk variability, which becomes an issue at high frequencies and when feature size is in the same size order as the reinforcement. In addi- tion, many applications have increased ther- mal management requirements. To overcome these challenges, Ventec has introduced unre- inforced Bondply dielectrics, which are for- APRIL 2025 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 13 mulated for high-speed signal integrity, low- loss performance, and thermal management in multilayer PCB stackups. We appreciate your time, Alun. And it was great finally playing guitar with you. ank you, Andy. It was a pleasure jamming with you all at IPC APEX EXPO. DESIGN007 In his extensive interview with Barry Matties, futurist Kevin Surace shares his thoughts on how artificial intelligence will impact the role of the printed circuit board designer. Barry Matties: A lot of people say AI will never replace the circuit designer, but I'm of the mind that the board will never be better than what AI will ulti- mately produce. Kevin Surace: Remember that AI has learned mil- lions of circuit designs, by chance, because they're out there to be found. It won't be perfect, but humans aren't perfect either. When you design a PC board, you make a lot of errors, go back and forth, and move components around. You might say, "I don't have room for this clock line or this power line, these lines are too close, it will be too noisy," or whatever the case is. It's trial and error. You work on it and work on it, and then you prototype it, and you find that you still might have to move a couple of things around or iso- late something. This is what we do. AI will do a better job than you, but you will be in charge of the AI. You still get to edit, change, and agree or disagree with it. But in five minutes, AI PCB layout and routing will blow away what any human can do in five days. Now you've saved the rest of those five days. You're off to prototyping, making a few edits, and off you go. So, of course we will use these tools. Think about large chips, especially microprocessors and GPUs, that have not been laid out by humans for a very, very, very long time because there are billions of transis- tors. It's impossible. In 18 layers, it's not possible for a human to contribute much to that. Now, we still oversee it, but we've been the robot overlord of that kind of place-and- route for decades. We had no choice but to go to machines. Click here to continue reading... An interview with Kevin Surace Will AI Replace PCB Designers?