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32 The PCB Design Magazine • March 2016 The butterflies fluttering around in your gut intensify as you walk down that long hallway to the impromptu department meeting. There have been a lot of rumors, but no one seems to know anything. You wonder, "Will I even have a job 20 min- utes from now?" Then you take your seat for the presentation. But fortunately, the news isn't what you had feared, and instead you find out that your company is merging with Acme In- dustries. And on top of that, Acme has an ur- gent need for a new design to be completed, and you've been picked for the job. So, in front of the VP, your boss, and all your co-workers, this particular hot potato gets handed to you. Congratulations. But as you look through the design data, those annoying butterflies return, because the design require- ments are something that you've never seen be- fore. And even though you desperately want to raise your hand when the VP asks if anyone has any questions, you decide to hide your confu- sion instead. But what you desperately want to ask is; "Just what in the heck is a hybrid design anyway?" So just what exactly is hybrid design? If the only thing that comes to mind is an image of a car that switches between batteries and gasoline for power, then this column may be just what you are looking for. We are seeing more and more of our customers exploring the world of hybrid design, and we are getting new custom- ers for whom hybrid design is their sole focus. The world of hybrid design is growing and we have lots of hybrid-specific functionality built into our software that helps designers conquer by Tim Haag intercept technology The Principles of Hybrid Design, Part 1 tim's takeaWays Figure 1: An example of a hybrid design (Image courtesy of Saline Lectronics).