IPC-2581 Consortium Welcomes Big Names

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

At PCB East, I spoke with Hemant Shah, chair of the IPC-2581 Consortium. In this interview, we discuss the new associate and corporate members of the consortium, including Panasonic Connect, Beta CAE, Quilter.ai, and Apple. 

Shah explains how EMS providers can benefit from IPC-2581, which is now connected to the IPC-CFX manufacturing format. He also lays out a plan for skeptical PCB designers to migrate over to IPC-2581 slowly, and not necessarily quitting Gerber “cold turkey.” Are you handing off data in a digital format yet?

Andy Shaughnessy: Hemant, nice to see you. I understand the IPC-2581 Consortium has some new members. Tell us about it.

Hemant Shah: Yes, we have some new corporate and associate members. Associate members can join the consortium as individuals if they are not affiliated with a company. 

Shaughnessy: Associate members are mainly PCB designers, right? 

Shah: Associate members are people who believe in IPC-2581 and who want to keep abreast of what's going on in the 2581 standard. The corporate members are most significant because that means that the whole company believes in the 2581 standard and is making a commitment to participate in the consortium. Their joining brings even more credibility to the standard and may serve to hasten its wider adoption. We recently had three companies join, and all did so because their customers asked them to. 

One of the newest corporate members is Panasonic Connect. They wanted to join the consortium because they are programming their SMT machines to accept 2581. A few years ago, we connected IPC-2581 with IPC-CFX, Connected Factory Exchange, which allows machines on the factory floor to talk to each other. CFX is a process-oriented standard, but machines need the design data to build the specific board, and SMT machines needs SMT data. By connecting 2581 with CFX, we're able to send design data in the 2581 format to the machine on the factory floor directly. Panasonic is programming its SMT machine to handle 2581 directly so there is no pre-processing required. 

Shaughnessy: Less manual intervention.

Shah: Exactly. And if they do this, then maybe their competitors will join as well. Koh Young has been a consortium partner for a while. They've been programming their machines to 2581 and have been talking and presenting papers at different conferences. So, there are machine makers that are CFX standard-compliant and are tying into 2581.

Also, Apple joined the consortium in April, which is significant. They have been actively participating in consortium meetings and IPC meetings. They had a list of enhancements they wanted to make to the standard for their own needs. That discussion has been ongoing and active. That is one of the benefits of joining the consortium. You can discuss and bounce your ideas off the experts in the PCB design and supply chain ecosystem and come up with a solution that's best for not only themselves but also the industry and the ecosystem. 

Shaughnessy: Having Apple involved is definitely a good sign.

Shah: When Apple speaks, everybody listens. Another company that has joined is Beta CAE, a simulation company from Switzerland that makes analysis software. They had suggestions on things we were doing around our sample test cases. They support 2581, but the test cases are not quite what they'd like to see. They're going to make some changes. And Quilter.ai has joined the consortium. Quilter.ai has developed an automated PCB design tool that uses AI, and it’s in beta right now.

Shaughnessy: That’s great. These companies came to you because of customer demand. Do you have a team that goes out and tries to recruit members into the consortium?

Shah: No, we only talk to companies at tradeshows and events like PCB East, PCB West, and IPC APEX EXPO. Of course, consortium members talk to their customers, which is important.

Shaughnessy: I am glad they're seeing the value. Our columnist Dana Korf writes about design data, and he can’t believe that more designers aren’t outputting data in 2581, or ODB++, for that matter. Designers just like Gerber. How do you convince them to switch? 

Shah: What we suggest is not to just tell your suppliers to switch to 2581. Instead, say, “Let's work together. For the boards you want to build, send the Gerbers, or whatever you normally send, and send 2581 as well.”  Ask them to compare the two files in their CAM tool and identify any changes or differences they see. The design house can then figure out why there's a difference between the two file types. One is an intelligent reflection of what the board is. The other one is extracted data which is used to manufacture the board. 

If there's a difference, either the Gerber output is flawed, or the design is flawed because 2581 is just a mirror image of what's in the design. After you've done that with many boards and you don’t see any differences, then switch to 2581 and be confident that everything is represented correctly on both your boards and your design. Go down this path, gently, with several different kinds of design boards and manufacturers, and compare the two. A lot of companies are doing this.

Shaughnessy: Just dip your toes in the water, so to speak. Hemant, it looks like you have a pretty wide group of companies represented in the consortium, from schematic through assembly. I guess that’s in part because of the CFX tie-in.

Shah: The consortium has great representation across all sectors, with OEMs and DFM companies like DownStream. Members include CAM software companies like Frontline, which is now part of KLA, UCAMCO, as well as pre-CAM and analysis software companies. Then we have manufacturing companies and equipment makers who are also part of the consortium. So, we really have the entire ecosystem in the consortium. 

Shaughnessy: It’s great to see IPC-2581 getting more acceptance in the industry. Thanks for speaking with me, Hemant.

Shah: Any time, Andy. Thank you.