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24 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018 Feature Interview by Barry Matties I-CONNECT007 Thomas Wischnack of Porsche Engineering is currently designing the high-power charging infrastructure that will go inside the next gen- eration of automobiles. Thomas was a keynote speaker at AltiumLive 2017 in Munich, Ger- many. I met with him to learn about Porsche's hardware and circuit development and what Porsche does to continually bring new design- ers into the fold. Barry Matties: Thomas, before we discuss the keynote you delivered here at AltiumLive 2017, please give our readers a little on your back- ground. Thomas Wischnack: Since 1993, I've dealt with electronics development, hardware and software development, which at that time meant 8-bit microcontrollers—everybody did it. During those years, speed has gone up, so frequencies are higher. Systems are get - ting more complicated. I started by develop- ing multimedia systems and high-end audio systems, and now, it's high-power charging infrastructure. Matties: How many years now have you been at Porsche Engineering? Wischnack: Fifteen years. Matties: Automobiles are arguably one of the harshest environment for boards to function in, correct? Wischnack: That's true. The automotive envi- ronment is hard. Especially if you're dealing with these infotainment systems, because they are mounted in the dashboard and just 50 cen- timeters away is the antenna, which is giving the RF signal to the ECU unit and for a clean radio reception, there needs to be a very, very clean design not to disturb your cell phone. And this is very hard stuff. Matties: And more and more with all the wire- less technology onboard…