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52 The PCB Design Magazine • May 2014 the town crier lecturing on HDI at a design conference, and I asked him to clarify my repository of HDI re- design questions. When Mike and I met at an- other design conference, he introduced me to the very person who inspired Little Dave: Hap- py Holden. Over the next few years, I had several con- versations with Happy until we finally worked together at the same company. Around the same time, Mentor Graphics' Charles Pfeil (whom I also worked under over a few years) released BGA Breakouts and Routing, which was well received by the PCB design community. Happy later re- leased his HDI Handbook, a collection of industry experts' perspectives, which included HDI design processes and methodologies. Happy used to cheer the number of free downloads as it went from the hundreds into the thousands. Happy and I later developed a four-day complete HDI training workshop, and then co-taught together. In late 2008, Happy gave me over 400 giga- bytes of his 20+ years of history teaching, writ- ings, and personal research. He passed his torch to me, and I am truly grateful for this brain- dump to his "grasshopper" (thanks to Eric Bo- gatin for that nickname). When we parted to work for other employ- ers, Happy and I continued teaching HDI for the next couple of years. I created a 100+ page hands-on workshop where designers could try to complete an IPC I, II, or III design, requiring only that the user choose different via sizes, and then let the autorouter attempt to complete the design based on their choices. The course was made available to the public in June 2011. I then contacted all of the major EDA ven- dors about sponsoring me to write a complete HDI course that would feature their tools in creating a HDI design from start to finish. At that time, no one from the EDA vendor com- munity was interested in having me create such a course. I was also approached by a major in- dustry standard group in mid-2010 to write a HDI certification course, but was told to just wait until they thought it was time to start writ- ing it. My last contact by this group about this topic is now four years old. So, this is why I have been sitting on the sidelines since June 2011. Like the traditional musician (yes, I am the Porch Dawg pianist) who waits by the phone for that important call, I came to the realization I needed to move on to other challenges and opportunities that were not re- lated to HDI. Other PCB design indus- try experts have taught HDI specialty courses at confer- ences, but the focus and the audience attendance on this design process has tru- ly lost momentum. Happy, Charles, and even Mike have gone on to lecture on dif- ferent non-HDI-related top- ics. With these key industry innovators/lecturers of the 2000–2010 time period no lon- ger working on anything related to HDI design education, what does the PCB de- sign user community think of this reduction of HDI education? What do YOU want or need regarding your HDI education? We want to know! Yes, it's time for another survey, one focused solely on HDI. Click here to take this short HDI survey, and share your thoughts with the design commu- nity. The results will be published in future col- umns. Thank you in advance for your time and feedback. I am sure both Big Dave and Little Dave will be curious about your input, too. PCBDESIGN Daniel J. smith is a principal technologist for raytheon Missile systems. he has taught multiple aspects of the PCB design pro- cess internationally, and he has authored several PCB-related patents, articles, and standards over the past 30+ years. To contact smith, click here. Other PCB design industry experts have taught HDI specialty courses at conferences, but the focus and the audience attendance on this design process has truly lost momentum. " " HDI DESIGN EDuCATION: IS ANYONE INTERESTED? continues