The Five Most-read Design007 News of 2022

Reading time ( words)

Each December, we like to look back at the most popular news of the past 12 months. You never know which news item is going to blow up like a Harry Styles album. 

So, grab some leftover ham and hang out with us for a while. For your holiday enjoyment, here’s a blast from the past: the top five most-read Design007 news of 2022.  

IPC Training Course on PCB Design for Printed and Wearable Devices
It’s not surprising that the No. 1 design news item of 2022 is related to IPC’s design curriculum. Now is the time to be a PCB design instructor, because designers are constantly retiring or slipping that mortal coil, and we’re losing subject matter experts all the time. Chances are that if you are a design instructor, you’re around retirement age, but we’re going to need you to keep on teaching. As the manager said in “Office Space,” “Yeahhh, that would be great.” 

Insulectro Hires PWB Commodity Specialist Laura Martin as Director of Technology
We don’t usually see news about new hires in the Top Five for any given year, but a couple of thousand people read about Laura Martin’s new gig at Insulectro. She’s a fabrication guru, but we’re including this news piece because Laura teaches classes for PCB designers who have never darkened the door of their neighborhood board shop. Does that sound like any designers you know? 

Altium, MacroFab Launch Industry-First Integrated PCB 'Design With Manufacturing' Application
There’s been a lot of talk about various ways to help PCB designers communicate with  manufacturers, and Altium shot up into the No. 3 spot for 2022 with this news item about their partnership with MacroFab. Slowly but surely, more and more designers are beginning to communicate with their fabrication and assembly providers. 

Samtec’s Richard Mellitz Named Engineer of the Year at DesignCon 2022
Richard Mellitz has been in the design world for decades, and we were glad to see him take home “Engineer of the Year” at DesignCon this year. Among other things, Richard helped create the first TDR (time domain reflectometry) standard for IPC. It’s nice to see him get recognized. 

IPC Training Course on PCB Design for Embedded Components
Embedded components have been taking off over the past few years, and IPC’s embedded component design curriculum seems to have taken off as well. You can expect to see a lot more news about embedded components and advanced packaging in 2023. It’s only getting more complex!

03/23/2023 | Kelly Dack, CID+

Filbert Arzola of Raytheon Intelligence & Space taught a Professional Development course at IPC APEX EXPO on general design practices. During a break, Filbert spoke with Kelly Dack about some of today’s design strategies and how designers are reacting to them. What matters most?

03/23/2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team

We’ve heard a lot lately about the need to identify tribal knowledge within our organizations. How do you know whether an “expert” is sharing documented knowledge or it’s just something they learned at their first job during the Carter administration? We asked IPC design instructor Kris Moyer to explain his process for separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, in design knowledge. As he points out, a true expert will not be afraid to cite the sources and data sets behind their arguments.

03/07/2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team

In this interview, Saline Lectronics (an Emerald EMS company) President Jason Sciberras talks about PCB designers offering packaging options in the bill of materials. As Jason explains, mil/aero manufacturers like Saline can’t make many changes to a design without getting recertified, so including approved packaging options in the BOM from the start is a great way to go. Are you offering options in your BOM?