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The Shaughnessy Report: An Inside Look at PCB West 2013

It had been a few years since I last attended PCB West, but the show has been growing steadily over the past few years. I’m glad I went this year. It’s always great to see old friends and meet new ones.

This event kicked off with Zuken throwing a party. The company plans to spend millions expanding its presence in North America, starting with a new Silicon Valley office, and they held a party by the pool at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara. The weather cooperated, and a talented jazz band set the mood for the night.

Zuken showed off their customers’ products: A Fiat 500 and a few Zero electric motorcycles were parked around the pool, bracketing a great sushi selection. Customers and potential customer mingled throughout the night; Zuken has been encouraging non-customers to talk to customers directly to get information about their EDA tools first-hand.

Speakers included Zuken COO Jinya Katsube, General Manager of Zuken Americas David Gullickson, and Synopsys CEO Aart de Geus, who discussed the companies’ partnership. And Senior Technical Marketing Manager Humair Mandavia detailed the future of the Silicon Valley office, which he will be heading up.

The exhibition opened on Wednesday, and attendees jammed the aisles for much of the day. I didn’t see any real dead times, though traffic did slow down after lunch. At 5:00 p.m., EMA Design Automation turned on the margarita machine, Altium got the beer and wine flowing, and the place was packed again.

Hosting 75 exhibitors (not quite 2000 levels, but moving that way), PCB West was buzzing. The exhibitors I spoke with all support the one-day show, anchored by a three-day technical conference. A show like this isn’t too much of a budgetary bite for these small and mid-sized companies.  

On the Show Floor

Nolan Johnson of Sunstone Circuits said the company is continuing to grow. Sunstone recently introduced a new version of its PCB123 design tool.

The DownStream Technologies booth stayed busy, with founder Rick Almeida discussing new solutions such as SoloPCB. DownStream took home a New Product Introduction award for SoloPCB.

Prototron Circuits’ Dave Ryder and Mark Thompson said the company has been slammed for months. Thompson has barely had time to work on his hobby: Flying and restoring old airplanes.

Colonial Circuits Sales Manager Wendy Osborn said the company has been busy, and they plan to keep investing in American-made equipment.

Gary Carter, CAD manager at Fujitsu Network Communications, showed off two more PCBs that have been manufactured by different fabricators--Sanmina-SCI and Sierra Circuits--using the IPC-2581 data format. The boards were designed on Cadence Allegro PCB design software. This marks three boards that have been successfully fabricated with the up-and-coming format, and the first to be created using Frontline Genesis fabrication software.

Semblant is seeing more companies select the Semblant Plasma Finish (SPF) and conformal coatings. The company expects to have solid growth over the next year.

Sierra Circuits’ Amit Bahl said the fabricator continues to experience steady growth, and he sees a great 2014 for the company.

Bay Area Circuits’ Peter Brissette said the company has moved into a larger facility in Fremont, California. The fabricator held an open house to celebrate the move, which Brissette believes will lead to increased turnaround times.  

Leo Lambert of EPTAC said the company has expanded its training courses. Now, EPTAC offers IPC Designer Certification, in addition to its manufacturing curriculum.

All in all, a great show, and a good omen for our industry. Here’s to a good SMTAI, DesignCon, IPC APEX EXPO, and CPCA.