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Marcy’s Musings: Our Own March Madness

I spend a lot of time looking ahead, whether that's toward future technology, market needs, or even the future of my editorial calendar. The industry is looking ahead as well. Every year at APEX EXPO, for example, participants get a clearer look at where we’re headed over the next three to five years. In fact, as our March issue is published, we will be in the throes of another great show (our own version of March Madness). I’m excited to learn from this year’s papers and poster presentations and share what we’ve learned with you. I also look forward to talking to the people behind the companies that make our industry thrive.

To that end, it’s what I love so much about the March issue of I-Connect007 Magazine. We’re covering the industry from a broader perspective rather than a specific theme. From the pivotal role of AI technology in design tools to the challenge of managing cumulative tolerances, these articles tackle issues that influence how PCB designers and fabricators approach their work every day. Here are some highlights.

By all accounts, Quilter appears to be a disruptor in the auto-routing space. Ben Jordan comes from a traditional EDA tool environment, but he’s passionate about the pivotal role of AI technology. Whether this tool will change designers’ minds is yet to be determined, but OEMs are certainly taking note.

By contrast, Stephen Chavez challenges companies not to lose the human touch. Their smartest play, he says, is to invest in PCB designers themselves, calling it “a strategic imperative for any organization aiming to gain a competitive advantage, or better yet, to lead the future of electronics.” I couldn’t agree more.

Next up, Kristin Moyer states, “GND has taken on a legendary or mythical status as the place where noise disappears into the ether: no current flows, and no voltage exists. These are all erroneous statements.” Read this article to learn what Kristin says is a better acronym: RTN. Meanwhile, fellow designer Kelly Dack uses his own acronym (WYSIWYG) to discuss pouring copper. Classic Kelly!

I learned a new term from Barry Olney, “ReRAM,” that advances the design discussion to addressing very small geometries (16 and 12 nm) and, he says, is emerging as the “better choice” for an array of end-products that require speed, endurance, low power, density, and flexibility.

Bridging the design-fab divide, Chris Clark of Flexible Circuit Technologies discusses the realities of cumulative tolerance in flex and rigid-flex PCB manufacturing, while Don Ball approaches the topic from the materials side: copper foil weights and tolerances all the way through the etch process. Given the number of processes involved and the variation of each, he rightly ponders the wonder of actually achieving the high-quality product we consistently ship out the door.

Steve Williams wraps up his three-part series detailing his professional development story, and PCBAA encourages U.S. industry members to support its efforts to pass H.R. 3597, the Protecting Circuit Boards and Substrates (PCBS) Act. I’ve got a fun interview with outgoing Student Board Member Emily Daley, and Richard Nichols at GreenSource Engineering explores novel copper extraction, which he says offers a better and greener alternative to traditional LLE control systems for cupric chloride etch.

If you are attending APEX EXPO this week, be sure to make the most of everything it has to offer. I’m so impressed with the breadth and depth of the classes, meetings, and technical conference. We’ll do our best to cover it all, so watch for our special five-issue Show & Tell Newsletter, publishing every Friday, starting March 27. Don’t miss out.

This column originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of I-Connect007 Magazine.