White Papers
Charles Pfeil's keynote presentation from PCB West 2024, "AI Roadmap for PCB Layout," highlights current AI limitations and necessary steps to address them to overcome these challenges. There are a lot of details in this presentation because the author wanted to provide a clear understanding of the intricacies involved.
It is designed to inspire collaboration among EDA companies, customers and designers to create AI capabilities that solve complex PCB layouts.
To access the pdf, you must register as a member of Printed Circuit University and be logged in.
Abstract: The Printed Circuit Engineering Association now offers FabFile Online, a list of active North American printed circuit board fabricators. PCEA keeps this list updated, so check back for changes.
This database was initially compiled and provided to the industry by Harvey Miller. For over seven decades, Harvey was a leading source of data on market and technology trends for the printed circuit board industry. His contributions to the industry can never be overstated. And a great thanks to Dr. Hayao Nakahara of N.T. Information for his extensive editing and comments to the list.
This list is copyrighted by Printed Circuit Engineering Association, Inc., and may be used only for personal reference. It may not be copied or resold.
To access the list, you must register as a member of Printed Circuit University and be logged in.
When history books cite the ‘industrial revolution’, they typically refer to the great improvement of productivity as workers gathered in factories to utilize mechanization using water and steam power. However, there have been subsequent improvements, with the second step change in productivity coming from the adoption of the assembly line and mass production. The adoption of computers and robotics was the next significant improvement, referred to as ‘Industry 3.0’. Manufacturing is now on the cusp of another substantial enhancement in productivity, as greater digitization and adoption of machine learning, AI, and wireless connectivity enable computers to continuously monitor multiple aspects of production and optimize processes accordingly. This transition is described as ‘Industry 4.0’
To download the Factory of the Future PDF, you must register as a member of Printed Circuit University and be logged in.
High-Speed Constraint Values and PCB Layout Methods allows PCB designers and engineers to understand all the important constraints and determine their values in a fast and precise manner using the accompanying calculator. The calculator, in its own right, is marvelously designed and simple to use.
This book covers most aspects of high-speed design, items such as the importance of IC output rise time (edge rate), critical line length, the role of dielectric constant, impedance control, setting up constraint classes, reference planes and signal returns, differential pair skew, including the impact of fiber weave, crosstalk, and trace corners, as well as via stubs and via impedance.
The author, Charles Pfeil, is a retired PCB layout software architect. In the PCB industry for over 50 years, Charles has been a designer, owner of a service bureau, and had engineering management and product definition roles at Racal-Redac, ASI, Cadence, PADS, VeriBest, Mentor Graphics, and Altium. Most of his career was at Mentor Graphics, where he was a software architect focused on the advanced development of PCB design tools. He was the original product architect of Expedition PCB, and an inventor of Team PCB, XtremePCB, XtremeAR, and the Sketch Router. He is also the author of BGA Breakouts and Routing.
To download the High-Speed Constraint Values and PCB Layout Methods PDF, you must register as a member of Printed Circuit University and be logged in.
