PCB Design is All in the Family with Nicole Pacino

April 18, 2019 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 Magazine

I shared a flight with Nicole Pacino on the way to Altium Live in Munich, and she mentioned that her father was speaking at the show. I went down the list of speakers, and it turned out that her dad is Mike Creeden of San Diego PCB. In Germany, I asked Nicole to tell us about how she got into this industry, and what we could do to draw more young people into this career.

MakeHarvard 2019: Bigger and Better!

April 18, 2019 | Team Sunstone Circuits, Sunstone Circuits

Sunstone Circuits was eager to return to MakeHarvard as a sponsor and creator of a competition category this year, also serving as both mentors and competition judges. If you were there, you saw us—we were hard to miss in our bright orange vests. As mentors, we were out and about helping students and answering questions.

Tim's Takeaways: I Think I’ll Go for a Walk

April 8, 2019 | Tim Haag, Consultant

Many years ago, my boss at a PCB design service bureau had his own unique way of encouraging us to take a break. He would come through the design bay and call out in his deep baritone voice, “DARTS!” and we would all...

Lightning Speed Laminates: Higher Frequencies Pave Way for Flexible Circuit Materials

April 4, 2019 | John Coonrod, Rogers Corporation

The smaller wavelengths of mmWave frequencies tend to highlight circuit material anomalies at those higher frequencies—anomalies that can also influence the radio frequency (RF) performance of the circuit. Such material...

Standard of Excellence: Microwave PCB Bonding Methods—What Designers Need to Know

April 1, 2019 | Team ASC, American Standard Circuits

The primary advantage of using thermoplastic films is their low electrical loss factor. PTFE multilayer boards are well known for their excellent electrical properties, but using a hybrid construction of a high-loss epoxy-based...