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A strong design constraint strategy carefully balances a wide range of electrical and manufacturing trade-offs. This month, we explore the key requirements, common challenges, and best practices behind building an effective constraint strategy.
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Most designers favor manual routing, but today's interactive autorouters may be changing designers' minds by allowing users more direct control. In this issue, our expert contributors discuss a variety of manual and autorouting strategies.
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Register Now for the IPC Design Competition 2024
December 19, 2023 | IPC StaffEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Every year, thousands of printed board design engineers spend countless hours completing and perfecting their designs. IPC is inviting these designers to put their skills to the test and compete to become the IPC Design Champion of 2024.
“I’m really excited about the IPC Design Competition,” said Patrick Crawford, Manager of Design Standards. “There’s still time to register, so don’t miss out.”
As in previous years, the IPC Design Competition is composed of two parts: a Virtual Heat and a Finals Heat. Each heat features a board design created especially for this competition by IPC instructor Kris Moyer.
The Virtual Heat consists of a full board buildup, starting with a component BOM, schematic, and use-case brief. Competitors will be responsible for completing the board and exporting a documentation package via Gerber or IPC-2581. Competitors can use their own preferred EDA tools.
This year, IPC has made this design easier to complete in the time allotted. The preliminary designs should take no longer than 10-12 hours for the average designer to complete. Competitors have 25 days to complete their Virtual Heat design and are judged on their implementation of design rules and layout per IPC standards as well as general implementation of DFX principles.
The Finalist Heat will take place at IPC APEX EXPO in Anaheim, California on April 9, 2024. Three finalists will be invited to IPC APEX EXPO for an in-person layout showdown. Competitors will be provided complimentary short-term licenses of Altium Designer to use for the Finals Heat.
Can you route the best board and take home the prize? If you think you have what it takes, register now by clicking here.
Registration closes January 12, 2024, so don’t wait!
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07/15/2025 | Dan Feinberg, I-Connect007Many IPC members who have contributed significantly to IPC and our industry have been awarded the IPC Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame (HOF) Award. Though many early HOF members have passed away and are unknown to today’s IPC membership, their contributions still resonate. This special series on IPC Hall of Fame members provides a reminder of who was honored and why. As a bonus, for those who are still around, we get to find out what these talented individuals are up to today.
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IPC-CFX, 2.0: How to Use the QPL Effectively
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