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92 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2026 Hemant, you led a full-day summit on the adop- tion of IPC-2581 at APEX EXPO this year, focused on getting more companies to adopt this stan- dard. What topics were covered during the sum- mit, and what do you hope attendees gained from participating? Hemant Shah: We hold these summits to bring together companies from the design and manufac- turing sides to learn from each other and under- stand their challenges in adopting the standard. In some cases, as Terry presented, they've success- fully replaced Gerber with 2581 on their designs. What did they learn and how did they go through the process of adopting it? Many companies have been using IPC-2581 since 2016. This was a follow-up to the October summit and was intended to provide them with an update and several other presentations, including one from Cisco talking about its migration from Gerber. Another was from Aegis discussing how their contract manufacturing customers use 2581. Dana Korf of Victory Giant spoke about why manu- facturers should use 2581, showing that much of the data passed to manufacturing is defective and needs correction. A presenter from Amazon spoke about how the company is using 2581 for stackup exchange and what challenges they're facing get- ting it to fabrication. Two very interesting things came out of the dis- cussions. First, a request to validate the output of their tools that produce data files to 2581, to con- firm whether the files produced by their tools are correct against the schema. That was a hot topic. Next, to our surprise, was that many companies are interested in using AI with the 2581 data to develop their own tools to get work done faster. Terry Hoffman: IPC-2581 is inherently AI-enabled, so it's a very good format for doing that. Shah: It's everything in one file, so you don't have to train the AI to understand multiple files, missing data, and so on. You just feed it the 2581 file, and AI can do the check. What are the next steps to ensure this becomes the global standard for data transfer? Shah: One recurring theme from the summit was how companies are requesting educational ma- terials they can pass to suppliers or their design houses, so the design houses can send them to their manufacturers to learn about 2581, and vice versa. We need a best practice for spreading the message about the benefits of IPC-2581 and broadening our reach, with the help of the Global Electronics Association. Hoffman: The enhancements that we make in the standard as we progress are important. Version 4 has several enhancements that we've requested over the past couple of years. We need to let people know what it supports today vs. what it supported even just last year, and make sure they know they can ask for changes to be included as we continue to update the standard. Are there any major hurdles to adoption that you're still facing? Hoffman: The industry has been using Gerber data for decades, and people don't like to change. The PCB industry is just as bad as the power indus- try. They just don't want to spend the money to change. I'm trying to break that down. Some OEMs are asking whether 2581 is support- ed, and they're being told no, so they just give up. But Cisco, on the other hand, found that it would protect their IP. Now we're telling our vendors that we'll be sending you 2581 data, and it's good data. It has everything the vendors need to build and assemble boards. Shah: Changing over from Gerber to 2581 is a process, not a light switch. When Terry said he told his suppliers, they worked together to develop a process and made sure the transition would go smoothly before they actually switched formats. Hoffman: Yes, and we did extensive testing ahead of time to ensure the data was being exported properly. There are ways to compare the Gerber to the IPC-2581 data output and demonstrate that the data is good. If it wasn't, we'd go back to our CAD vendor and have them update their software. It's important to make sure that everybody is good with it. You have to prove it to them.