Review of the Santa Ana IPC Designers Learning Symposium

Hosted by the Orange County & Los Angeles Designers Council Chapters

By Nate Fitt, IPC Designers Council Coordinator

On October 10th, the IPC Designers Council along with the Orange County and Los Angeles Designers Council Chapters held the final symposium of 2007 in Santa Ana, CA, and the results were outstanding. Over 70 people, including 8 tabletop vendors, attended to network with and hear industry experts Happy Holden of Mentor Graphics, Gil White of Dynamic Details Inc., and Rick Hartley of L-3 Communications Avionics Systems discuss the importance of HDI technology and grounding techniques.

Scott McCurdy and Javier Jimenez, presidents of the Orange County and Los Angeles Designers Council Chapters, kicked things off by welcoming everyone with an introduction about the importance of designer’s continuing education. Whether it’s attending a Designers Learning Symposium or a PCB Designers Certification workshop, designers need to seek out the latest advancements in their industry to stay current with the latest technologies.

Scott McCurdy welcomes everyone to Santa Ana	Tabletop vendors were on hand to showcase their products and services

Happy Holden began with two presentations: “HDI Technology — Risks and Rewards” & “Implementing HDI in Your Design.” In these, he stated that although HDI is the fastest growing segment of the PCB market in the world, North America has been the slowest to adopt it. He examined the main drivers as to why HDI should be used more, and discussed the obstacles holding its use back. During the “Implementation” segment, he looked at advanced technologies for the interconnection of area array components, from ASIC packaging, portable products, high performance computing, and telecom to dense system–in-package (SiP) modules.

Happy Holden discuses the risks and rewards of HDI technology

Next, Gil White presented “HDI Manufacturing and Enabling Technology.” The group listened intently as Gil discussed the IPC— 6012B specification requirement for wrap-around-plating and the problems and issues associated with this requirement, and many interacted with thought-provoking questions and real life examples of the issues they’ve faced. Gil also made the statement that “microvias are a no-cost adder”, which caused quite a stir in the room.

The group listens as Gil White addresses “HDI Manufacturing and Enabling Technology”

Rick Hartley closed the symposium with a very informative presentation about a problem often overlooked by designers dealing with high speed circuits — “Grounding to Control Noise and EMI.” He introduced the concepts needed in high speed circuit and printed circuit design on how to “Ground” a circuit for proper operation. He covered many things, including “why” we call it ground, the many types of “ground,” basic transmission line concepts, successful PCB stack-ups, splitting versus not splitting ground (pros and cons of each), ground in IC packages, ground in connectors, grounded guard traces (pros and cons) and RF shielding techniques. 

Rick Hartley presenting “Grounding to Control Noise and EMI”

After the technical presentations, a closing reception was held where attendees networked with the speakers and vendors over a drink and some light hors’ dourves. Vendors raffled off prizes such as memory sticks, tee shirts, golf balls, and the main drawings constituted a PDA and a Blu-ray DVD player.

Vendors in attendance were:

• ADIVA Corporation
• Dynamic Details, Inc. (DDI)
• Freedom CAD Services Inc.
• Mentor graphics
• Ohmega Technologies Inc.
• PCB Libraries
• Polar Instruments
• TTM Technologies

Attendees stayed afterwards to mingle with the vendors and each other during the closing reception	Santiago Cervantes and Lance Fennell pose after winning a Blu-ray DVD player and PDA from the main raffle drawing

1. “From Scott & Javier’s promotion of the symposium to Happy, Rick and Gil's presentations — A job well done!”
2. “All the topics were very informative… I enjoyed having industry leaders address the HDI topic.”
3. “Great information and presenters. The lower cost equals a great value.”
4. “Hard to think of anything to improve upon. IT WAS GREAT! - Glad I came.”

Javier Jimenez, president of the Los Angeles Chapter added "Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the DLS on HDI in Santa Ana, CA. I hope everyone was able to walk away with a greater appreciation for HDI technology and able to apply it in their future designs.

“It's important to stay current with existing technologies and the Designers Council is working hard to provide the resources and workshops to help. We will be having other advanced workshops and symposiums coming next year, so get involved with your local IPC Designers Council Chapter to stay current with technology.

If you enjoyed what was offered at the HDI symposium then look for additional workshops and Designers Summit coming up in March 2008 at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas."

Scott McCurdy, President of the Orange County chapter said, “The nice turnout that we experienced at our very first Symposium shows the commitment that many designers truly want to advance their knowledge base to help them become better designers.  I’m pleased that so many people who attended expressed to me that this was a very valuable learning experience.”

Following the Symposium, IPC held both our PCB Designer & Advanced Designer Certification workshops (CID & CID+). The CID workshop featured 20 designers earning the CID designation, with 8 the coveted CID+. In all, the events in Santa Ana were a huge success and proved the IPC Designers Council is a leader in bringing quality educational opportunities to local designers. Next up is the Designers Summit, in conjunction with the IPC Printed Circuits Expo & APEX in Las Vegas, Nev. Designers Day will be Monday, March 21st, and Happy and Rick will both be present as well as several other prominent figures in PCB design.  We’ll be looking to build upon the success of the Designers Learning Symposiums, and hope to have you join us.

The Designers Council wishes to thank Scott McCurdy and Javier Jimenez for their contributions, as well as Happy Holden, Gil White, Rick Hartley, and the vendors for their participation.