Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Target Condition: ‘Boomer to Zoomer: Do You Copy?’

Let’s just admit it. The baby boomer PCB designers are looking at retirement, but it’s been a good run. In the 1980s, many of us still “taped out” our PCB artwork layers and then drove them over to the graphic art service to be photo-reduced onto film positives and negatives.

Then, almost overnight, the PCB design industry changed. Computer-aided design software tools made our old light tables, Mylar sheets, and rubylith tape obsolete. There was no Internet. Once our CAD layout design was finished, we exported the data onto large “mag” tape reels, which—like our hand-taped designs—had to be delivered to that same photoplotting service. What an important job we had when we were selected to take the company fleet car and deliver the design data to a service like Advanced Circuit Graphics.

CAM data was a lot different 45 years ago. The data had one purpose: to drive a mechanical laser to expose film depicting a PCB circuit layer. We had to provide an aperture table with the file so that line widths would match the intent, but that was it. Once the artwork film was photo-plotted, the CAM data’s job was over. Back then, the order was most likely produced with a FIRE 9000 laser that was state-of-the-art at the time.

In a day or two, we’d get a phone call from our purchasing department informing us that our photoplotted order was ready. We felt doubly important if we were selected to drive the company car over to pick it up and then drop the artwork film positives and negatives off at the nearby PCB prototyping shop.

These were our normal workflows. No netlist data or connectivity report. No drill file output. In fact, once a PCB prototype shop got the artwork film in hand, it would be photo-graphically replicated multiple times onto glass panels to form the working phototooling. The through-holes were drilled by machine but “bomb-sighted” for position by a technician. In a week or two, our PCB prototypes—printed, etched and plated using the artwork as the master tooling—were again ready to be picked up by a young PCB designer.

Fast Forward
Now it’s 2025. I recently attended DesignCon 2025, where I saw technology I could have never imagined in 1980. We engaged with electronics engineers who presented sessions on electronic sensors for future high energy particle colliders, artificial intelligence computing, and global connectivity with low-Earth orbit satellite technology. We met with technology companies that I recognized from my early years in the industry, many of whom still specialize in CAD, testing and interconnectivity. These companies started business long ago, but they adapted and evolved. They’ve successfully navigated the political and economic challenges of the past five decades and are now actively supplying better products and services today.

We boomers sometimes laugh at how green we must have appeared to the older generation of design engineers who had begun their careers in the postwar years. After the advent of EDA tools, the old-school designers thought us youngsters would never learn to design a board because the tool was doing all of the work. Now, it’s our turn to judge, as boomers wonder if Gen Z (zoomer) designers will be savvy enough to understand all the elements of DFX without going through all the tech changes we experienced.

This industry seems to again be in transition. Because of misinformation, many young designers are wondering what DFX is; some of you think that DFX is already achieved with the default settings in your EDA tools. Pardon us if we begin each story, “Back in my day, there were no internets. We used X-Acto knives, and we were always bleeding.”

So, I have a query for our zoomer designers, the digital natives born between 1996 and 2009 who don’t remember a time without cellphones: Where will you be in 45 years? What will it be like? What will you be like? I have no idea. I can only cheer you on and encourage you to strap in and enjoy the ride. Electronic technologies will continue to evolve faster than ever. Like the successful companies still presenting their wares at trade shows, you too will have to evolve, navigate, and adapt to survive.

Design Education is Your Responsibility
Take every opportunity to educate yourself. Learn everything you can about this industry and prepare to defend your designs. Much like our PCB artwork film needed to be exposed four decades ago, you should expose yourself to what is trending now and invest in your future. Read technical publications constantly and attend trade shows and conferences whenever you can. I’ve been attending PCB design conferences and trade shows since 1992. Consider attending IPC APEX EXPO 2025 in March. Absorb knowledge. Bring your experience back to the office. Take the lead and share it.

Seek out and collaborate with electronics industry folks who are well known experts and of good character. I’ll never forget one of my favorite mentors, Rick Hartley, pounding his fist on a lectern, emphasizing to the audience the need to invest in their design education, buy their own books, and always question component data sheets. It was a defining moment for me, and I’ve practiced that philosophy ever since.

As Rick said, if your company will not send you for advanced design training, you’ll have to take care of it yourself. Now, my manager sends me to trade shows to find out more about certain technologies or to identify potential manufacturing partners, but with previous employers, I used PTO or vacation days to attend conferences and trade shows. Do whatever you have to do to continue your design education.

Communicating with designers and design engineers outside of your company can help you avoid relying upon “tribal knowledge” that flourishes within each company. This “intellectual inbreeding” can occur when young PCB designers work at one company for decades, often learning only one way to design a board. Learn how other designers approach their designs and be sure to avoid relying on the same “silos” of information.

I’ve worked in a company office for most of my life, but many young designers are comfortable working remotely. Whether you work at home or at your company’s facility, I urge to you to engage with other designers in person as often as possible. Zoom and Teams meetings are handy, but there’s no substitute for meeting other designers in person at conferences or trade shows.

Follow Passions Away from Your Screen
I have a saying based upon years of observation: The best PCB designers can figure out how to solve a challenge 12 different ways. The objective is not to come up with the cheapest, smallest, or quickest design. The objective is to come up with a design which will provide the best value to all the project stakeholders. Develop your problem-solving and communication skills. 

Be sure to enjoy plenty of hobbies and activities. In the 1980s, we boomers enrolled in community college classes for $5 per semester (plus books). In the 1990s, many of us began writing technical articles for industry magazines. Some of us learned to sing or play an instrument. Some of us played and sang with the Porch Dawgs at design conferences in the 1990s and early 2000s. I discovered years ago that I had a knack for conducting video interviews at trade shows; I never thought I’d be “eye candy” after 30 years in the industry.

Character Counts
Remember that character counts. No one wants to work with someone who is unpleasant or untrustworthy. No need for a spiritual deep dive here, but a PCB design career is business. Good business is usually mutually beneficial, while bad business often ends up in court. Don’t end up in court.

Much of what you need to know to get ahead in this industry—and any industry, really—can be found in the character traits listed in the guidelines for the Boy Scouts of America, which was recently rebranded as Scouting America. Being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent will help ensure that you enjoy a successful career and life. These traits are timeless and easy to understand, and they should be part of every PCB designer’s DRC for long-term personal goals.

Good luck, new designers. We boomers will be happy to answer your questions, but you’d better hurry. The pickleball courts are calling us.

This column originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of Design007 Magazine.