IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1544398
44 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2026 F E AT U R E A RT I C L E What if the very rules that made you successful as a PCB designer are the ones now holding you back? This reminds me of walking the floor and attending sessions at both PCB West 2025 and APEX EXPO 2026, where one common theme stood out: More designs with traditional PCB "best practices" simply don't apply. It's not because they're wrong, but because the problems we're solving have fundamentally changed. In some cases, those best practices can actu- ally limit performance. This is where PCB design moves beyond optimization and into something far more challenging: designing without a rulebook. When 'Best Practices' Stop Being Best For most of our careers, PCB design has relied on proven guidelines, rules that ensure manufactur- ability, signal integrity, and reliability. These prac- tices are built on decades of experience because they work. But what happens when you're working on something that hasn't been done before? BY ST E P H E N V. C H AV E Z , S I E M E N S E DA A N D P C E A Designing Without a Rulebook WHEN ENGINEERING BECOMES INNOVATION