IPC Hall of Fame Spotlight Series: Highlighting Doug Pauls

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Editor’s note: Dan Feinberg continues his series on the IPC Hall of Fame, spotlighting the achievements of past Hall of Fame members.

Over the years, 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.  

This month, I highlight Doug Pauls, who was awarded the Hall of Fame Award in 2016. He had previously received the IPC’s President’s Award. When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Doug was the principal materials and process engineer at Rockwell Collins.

Doug was working for Naval Avionics (a designation used for a U.S. Naval facility) in 1985 when his company sent him to his first IPC meeting. He immediately got involved with the Solder Mask Task Group, soon becoming vice chair. He offers thanks and credit to Susan Mansilla, who introduced him to his first committee and got him involved on day one. He continued and increased his involvement, helping to advance the IPC goals and objectives, thereby benefitting the entire electronics industry. Over the years, he has been involved in at least 50 task groups.

Doug served as chair of IPC’s Conformal Coatings Requirements Task Group and had previously served on the Cleaning and Coating Committee for 10 years. He was an instrumental contributor to IPC-CC-830, Qualification and Performance of Electrical Insulating Compound for Printed Wiring Assemblies, as well contributing to the development and revision of IPC-HDBK-830, Guidelines for Design, Selection, and Application of Conformal Coatings. He led IPC efforts in bare board cleanliness, solder mask, surface insulation resistance (SIR), chemical characterization, conformal coating, cleaning processes, and materials and process compatibility testing.

Additionally, Doug served as a U.S. representative to ISO and IEC working groups on SIR and electro-migration reliability standards and participated in numerous national and international consortia on electronics manufacturing materials and processes.

Doug feels that his greatest achievement for IPC and the industry was his involvement in 2018 culminating in the “How clean is clean?” IPC-J-001 standard. He feels that his deep involvement in IPC not only helped IPC and the industry but provided him with an amazing platform for continuous learning throughout his career. It was also a significant benefit to his employer.

Though now semi-retired, Doug says that his time and experience working with IPC and all that he learned throughout his career allows him to continue giving back to the industry in significant ways through his consulting work.

Thank you, Doug Pauls, for your significant contributions over the years and your continued work today.

This article appeared in the January 2025 issue of PCB007 Magazine.