Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/639114
22 The PCB Design Magazine • February 2016 by Andy Shaughnessy I-ConneCT007 Zuken has developed some innovative PCB design tools in the past few years, and I want- ed to find out more about the company's new and upcoming technologies. I caught up with Bob Potock, vice president of marketing for the Americas for Zuken USA, and asked him what was new at Zuken. Andy Shaughnessy: Tell us about some of the new PCB design tools at Zuken. Bob Potock: Let's talk about System Planner for hardware architecture design and validation. System Planner is part of the CR-8000 product- centric design platform. As products become more complex, the need for architecture design and validation is growing. Architecture valida- tion sits between product requirements and detailed design. Today, many companies make the leap from requirements to detailed design; years ago that might have worked, but not to- day. Zuken's System Planner product provides functional, PCB planning, space and parametric design and validation. Functional design using blocks can be easily mapped back to require- ments. And all those architecture decisions roll right into the detailed design tools with the push of a button. Engineering data management (EDM) is all about data integrity and decision-making in the design process. Supply chain connectivity, dispersed design teams, modular design and version control are examples of competitive requirements. DS-2 Expresso brings these ca- pabilities to the small and medium business segment. A deployment based on configurabil- ity and not customization makes deployment fast with all the benefits of an EDM solution. Shaughnessy: What new technologies are you all excited about? Potock: Rigid-flex designs are entering into more conversations. Many of our customers' products contain multiple PCBs that tradi- tionally required connectors on the rigid PCBs mating to connectors on separate flex PCBs. The ability to design the rigid and the flex as one eliminates the need for mating connectors, feature interview with Bob potock ...at Zuken