I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

We’re heading into the holiday season, and tradeshow season is in full swing. Managing Editor Nolan Johnson and technical editor Pete Starkey have spent the week in Munich covering electronica, and apparently the attendance was wunderbar. COVID still persists, but everyone is ready to return to some normalcy. 

There’s a lot going on in our industry. In this week’s roundup, we have articles on everything from rigid-flex to the supply chain, as well as a primer on the role of physics in PCB design. As we move into the new year, you should check out this Top 10 list of tech trends for 2023, courtesy of Gartner.

I hope all my friends in the colonies have a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Electronica: Picking Up Where We Left Off
Published November 18

Are industry events getting back to some semblance of normalcy? It’s looking that way. The last few events we’ve covered have posted good attendance numbers, and the electronica show in Munich kept that positive vibe going, as Nolan Johnson explains here. Let’s hold a good thought for next year’s conferences and trade shows. 

The Physics of PCB Design
Published November 17

There’s been a bigger focus on the fundamentals of physics lately, as issues like thermal management become more prevalent. But do PCB designers really need to understand Maxwell’s equations and Ohm’s law? We have a great interview with Eric Bogatin, who explains how designers can learn the fundamentals of physics without letting the math “get in the way.”

Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2023
Published November 18

Gartner has been tracking data and trends in the electronics industry for decades, and they seem to get quite a bit right over time. They recently gazed into their crystal ball and released their Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2023. Artificial intelligence figures into three of these predictions, including sustainability. Check it out.

Your Shortage Is Someone Else’s Excess
Published November 16

Remember when excess inventory was a big problem? We’ve been dealing with shortages and long lead times for so long that it’s easy to get tunnel vision about this. In this article, Chintan Sutaria takes a wide-angled look at the supply chain and our almost impossible quest to have neither shortage nor excess of PCB parts. If you feel as if you’re tilting at windmills now, you’re not alone.

DownStream Flexes in Rigid-Flex
Published November 14

In this interview from PCB West, DownStream Technologies’ Joe Clark and Mark Gallant discuss their latest tool updates in the rigid-flex arena, including inter-layer SI analysis. As Joe half-jokingly points out, with this sort of functionality, DownStream may be on its way to becoming an EDA layout software company. Lots of things happening in post-processing now.