The World of PCBs: Anything But Boring

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

I had the chance to catch up with Megan Teta, CID+, product manager of design and education services at Insulectro. Megan explains why she’s excited to become more involved in training and why the world of PCBs is anything but boring, contrary to popular opinion.

Andy Shaughnessy: For anybody who didn’t see last year’s interview, give us a quick background on yourself and talk about your promotion. Congratulations, by the way.

Megan Teta: Thank you! I’ve been in the industry for five years, and a little over two and a half years with Insulectro. I received a promotion to product manager of design and education services. Before that, I was a field application engineer on the East Coast, which I’m continuing to do. Currently, our goals with PCB design and education are to get more designers informed on anything and everything, mostly focusing on materials set aside for the manufacturer, etc. We also partnered with two design services companies, and we work very closely with them. We make sure that anybody who has a bottleneck in their design can get through that, so that has been our primary focus.

Shaughnessy: You’re not an old, grizzled veteran yet, but what were some of the things that surprised you about this industry?

Teta: People don’t realize how many different aspects in which you can become involved. From day to day, I deal with a lot of the RF and high-speed digital stuff, along with aerospace and automotive. The different areas our PCBs go into is so large across the spectrum, and you need to learn exactly what type of applications they need to go through, whether that’s high-temperature or down-hole drilling technology. Any electronic device you use has a board in it. We’re going to 5G because circuit boards are going to be capable of that bandwidth. I’m still surprised at how involved PCBs are in every aspect of your life; it’s not just the bare boards.

Shaughnessy: I have a lot of friends who think this sounds like a boring industry. Maybe the boards are, but the things they go into will change the world.

Teta: And depending on what area you’re in, you can be involved from the design and innovation aspect all the way through assembly. Some people I work with deal with packaging hardware and software, so you can learn about every aspect of it if that’s what you want to do. There are so many different things. If you decide you wanted to get involved in the manufacturing side, there are a million different processes, so it’s not limited to one area. As soon as you get in the door and learn from some key people, you can do almost whatever you like. Even the marketing side of this segment is completely different from typical marketing, so you should never get bored.

To read this entire interview, which appeared in the November 2019 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.