Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Introducing: The PCB Design Magazine

If you spend 10 minutes on Google, you’ll discover that there are B2B magazines dedicated to just about every high-tech topic under the sun.

You can subscribe to a magazine that covers the ins and outs of SQL servers, SQL Server Magazine. If SQL servers are a big part of your world, this is the magazine for you. I don’t think I’d get much out of it, to tell you the truth, but somewhere, someone is digging into that great new article on hypervisors.

Closer to home, we find magazines that focus on electrical engineering, chip packaging, embedded systems design, and RF and microwave design, just to name a few. Here at I-Connect007, we publish magazines dedicated solely to PCB fabrication (The PCB Magazine) and assembly (SMT Magazine).  

Yes, plenty of B2B magazines focus on a single vertical subject. But, sadly, there are no pureplay PCB design magazines. Why not? The PCB design is not an afterthought, a subject to be covered tangentially along with a variety of other topics.

The PCB design is the foundation of most of today’s electronic products. The design is “the hub of the wagon wheel,” as Mary Sugden used to tell her design class attendees.

Today’s PCB designers deserve their own magazine. Now, it’s more important than ever for designers to have access to the latest information. Design techniques are constantly evolving, with designers dealing with more and more high-speed issues that were once firmly in the wheelhouse of the electrical engineer.   

So, we’ve decided to take action. In November, we’re launching The PCB Design Magazine, a publication that focuses on PCB design and related issues. Nothing more, nothing less. If you’re reading this column, The PCB Design Magazine is for you. This will be your one-stop shop for technical information, opinion columns and news about the PCB design community.

Like SMT Magazine and The PCB Magazine, The PCB Design Magazine will come to your inbox in a cool digital format, with live-action covers that seem to explode off the page. Inside, you’ll find the cutting-edge design content that you’ve come to expect from PCBDesign007, but in a much larger digital magazine format.

Our inaugural issue will launch on November 15, with articles by Lee Ritchey, Happy Holden, Tom Hausherr, and Iain Wilson. I’m fortunate to have a terrific stable of columnists: Doug Brooks, Barry Olney, Mark Thompson, Istvan Novak, John Coonrod, Paul Reid, and Bert Simonovich.

And help me extend a warm welcome to our newest columnist, Caterpillar’s Jack Olson. I’ve been trying to talk Jack into writing a column since before he grew a beard, and we’re all glad to have him on board. Jack is going to address the basic principles of PCB design, but if you’ve read any of Jack’s articles (click here to see one of my favorites), you can be sure his columns will be anything but basic.

The response to The PCB Design Magazine has been wildly enthusiastic. Designers are ecstatic that they’ll have a publication that they can call their own. This means a lot to a group that once felt misunderstood by the rest of the electronics world. (“What’s taking you so long? All you’re doing is connecting the dots, right? Can’t you let the autorouter do all the work?”)

As you can guess, I’m excited about our new magazine, especially because I’ll get to work with more of you as time goes on. (This is a big magazine, so I’m going to need plenty of content!) Ever since I started covering PCB design years ago, designers have offered me their guidance and support, patiently answering my pesky questions and helping me to better understand this crazy profession. I’m happy that I can lend my support in return.  

I believe the design community will get a lot out of The PCB Design Magazine, and I think you’ll all really enjoy reading it, too.

After all, it’s your magazine.