The Shaughnessy Report: The Designer of Tomorrow
Designers Notebook: Impact of Advanced Semiconductor Packaging on PCB Stackup
Fresh PCB Concepts: PCB Stackup Strategies—Minimizing Crosstalk and EMI for Signal Integrity
Being the Best Design Engineer
March 21, 2024 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
During DesignCon 2024, I met with Bill Hargin, founder and CEO (Chief Everything Officer) of the stackup design software company Z-zero. In this interview, Bill discusses his stackup curriculum, what it takes to become a great design engineer, and why the best designers keep reading and challenging themselves constantly so they can stay on top of their game.
Andy Shaughnessy: Bill, you did a presentation here at DesignCon. Tell me about it.
Hargin: Yes, it was great—it’s a popular topic, and the class was standing room only. The topic was the same as the title of the book I just wrote for I-Connect007, Stackups: The Design Within the Design. It's kind of like a red pill vs. blue pill situation. You can have the blue pill and have your fabricators design your stackups, or the red pill, and you can learn to do the nitty gritty work yourself as a CAD designer or an engineer.
Shaughnessy: Generally, you want the freedom of the red pill, so that you know what's going on, I imagine.
Hargin: Of course. There's a lot to learn, and there aren't college curriculums teaching stackup design. There isn't that much stackup training out there. So, I've really been leaning into researching it. If I wrote that book again today, it would be a totally different book. It's not that stackups have changed; I just keep learning. I'm researching at the same time that I'm developing software and teaching others how to do this stuff.
As Einstein said, “The more I learned about the universe, the more I realized how much I don't know.” It sounds weird to say that about stackups, but it's a little like that. What I find is that the engineering hardware design part of the world is pretty interested in learning how to do a better job with the backbone of the PCB, the stackup.
Shaughnessy: As you say, the fabricator will do the stackup, but it benefits everybody if the person at the front end understands more about it. But stackups seem to give people such a hard time.
Hargin: The problem is, let's say you have a master's degree in electrical engineering. You're a pretty smart guy. You've been trained on electromagnetics, and all the circuit theory that somebody could want. You might even be able to recite Maxwell's equations. But none of that helps you do a stackup, because the stackup is largely mechanical, with electrical properties. So, how do you learn how to do that? You need training, and having a good tool helps. I'm not trying to just sell my software like an infomercial. But the person who thought of this, the person who developed the class, and the person who developed the software, it's all the same guy. So, I can't separate those three things.
To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the March 2024 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Suggested Items
SMTA UHDI Symposium: Shortening the Learning Curve
01/15/2025 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007SMTA’s second annual UHDI Symposium on Jan. 23 in Phoenix will highlight groundbreaking discussions on UHDI assembly test board, innovative electronic inks, process controls, and signal integrity solutions. Organizer Tara Dunn talks about the importance of the event and how she prepared presentations and discussions that would appeal to fabricators, assemblers, and designers. This event will shorten your learning curve and spark new ideas that push the boundaries of hardware electronics manufacturing. There’s still time to register.
ITW EAE Achieves ISO 14001 Certification Across All Manufacturing Sites
01/14/2025 | ITW EAEITW EAE, the Electronic Assembly Equipment division of ITW, proudly announces that its manufacturing facilities in Camdenton, Missouri; Lakeville, Minnesota; and Suzhou, China have achieved ISO 14001 certification.
January 2025 Issue of Design007 Magazine: The Designer of the Future
01/13/2025 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamAs we enter the new year, it’s a great time to be a PCB designer. The job is more complex than ever, and a lot of fun too. We can only wonder what the PCB designers of 1975 would think about the typical PCB designer’s workday. What will the designers' job be like for the next generations?
The Shaughnessy Report: The Designer of Tomorrow
01/14/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy -- Column: The Shaughnessy ReportIt’s a great time to be a PCB designer. The job is more complex than ever, but it's also a lot of fun. We can only wonder what the PCB designers of 1975 would think about today’s typical workday. What will the designer's job look like in the future? There has been a move toward working remotely, driven partly by the COVID pandemic and partly by reality: Many experienced designers simply will not relocate, even for a more lucrative job.
IPC Announces New Training Course: PCB Design for Manufacturability
01/10/2025 | IPCThis three-week online program, taught by an industry expert with over 40 years of experience, is designed to equip PCB designers with the knowledge and skills to reduce or eliminate design, documentation, and capability issues that often arise during PCB fabrication.