Designer in the Spotlight

Name: Richard K. Upton, CID+

Company you currently work for: Northrop Grumman Space Technology

Position: Lead PCB designer for ground systems

What are your typical daily duties: I start my day responding to vendor questions. Next, I address any internal PCB issues, followed by my own layout tasks.

What are the biggest challenges for you in your position: Finding time to work my boards as well as try to keep the other guys busy, and
overseeing the contractors and subcontracted work as well as responding to questions regarding board fabrication. Finding enough time is the biggest challenge.

How and what year did you get started with PCB Layout: The mechanical design and integration job I was working dried up and I was thrown into the micro-electronics world. I started laying out hybrids in 1992 and moved to PCB's when TRW started using Mentor Graphics, I think the year was 1993.

What has been the most rewarding thing during your career: The most rewarding experiences I have had are finding out that a PCB I laid out worked as expected when plugged in. It makes me feel like I did my job.

Where did you get your training from: Mainly on the job training. I was lucky enough to have an excellent supervisor, Jim Combs, who allowed me attend user groups, Mentor and CCT, and software training classes, which really allowed me to learn a lot about PCB design.

What single thing has helped you the most within your career: The single thing that has helped me the most within my career is not being
satisfied with yesterday's accomplishments. Always trying to learn
something new and implement it within my tasks.

If you or someone you know would like to be spotlighted in future editions of the Route, please contact Tina Nerad at tinanerad@ipc.org