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PCB Summit Preview with John Andresakis

The past three years have been tough on the electronics industry, with North American trade shows and conferences struggling to hold onto attendees.

But DesignCon hasn’t suffered the empty aisles that have recently afflicted some of its brethren. This show grows almost every year. Perhaps its Silicon Valley location insulates the show from wild attendance swings. But DesignCon certainly owes part of its success to its ability to adapt, to evolve over time.

Once seen by many PCB designers as a show targeted at the chip design community, DesignCon has expanded its PCB content in the classrooms while attracting more PCB exhibitors on the show floor. Last year marked the first PCB Summit, chaired by George Dudnikov, Vice President and CTO of Sanmina-SCI.

For 2011, the PCB Summit will be chaired by John Andresakis, Vice President of Strategic Technology for Oak-Mitsui. I caught up with John via e-mail and we discussed DesignCon 2011, as well as what attendees can expect at and the PCB Summit this year.

ANDY: So, John, you're the PCB Summit Chair for DesignCon 2011. How are things looking so far?JOHN: This year is shaping up to be another excellent event. With the improvement in the economy, we expect to see increased attendance this year, as well as companies showing their latest and greatest technology.

ANDY: Since this is the PCB Summit's second year, we can assume the first PCB Summit was a success?JOHN: The inaugural event of the PCB Summit was a success. Almost all the sessions were heavily attended, indicating that the subjects selected were important to the PCB design community. The feedback from the attendees was positive and the presenters were happy with the turnout.

ANDY: What are some of the highlights of this PCB Summit? JOHN: We will continue to build on last year’s success and continue with some of the same themes. Accurate modeling of circuits is still a hot issue and we have a number of talks on modeling of specific devices and systems operating at high frequencies. Along with this, the impact of the PCB materials on loss at high frequency will be discussed (in particular separating the loss due to the dielectric versus the conductor). In addition, an emerging technology will be discussed, which is the embedding of active components inside the PCB.

ANDY: Why should our readers attend DesignCon?JOHN: DesignCon is one of the few opportunities to not only see what is going on in one’s own area of expertise, but to see what is happening in the rest of the system. To provide better designs, you need to know how all the individual pieces of the system operate and how they influence each other. Also, the list of exhibitors is impressive and you can take in a lot of knowledge in a short period of time. Not attending DesignCon can put you at a competitive disadvantage.

ANDY: Thanks for your time John. We’ll see you there.JOHN: Thank you.

PCBDesign007 will be covering DesignCon 2011 and the PCB Summit. For more information, visit www.designcon.com.