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Beyond the Rulebook
What happens when the rule book is no longer useful, or worse, was never written in the first place? In today’s fast-moving electronics landscape, we’re increasingly asked to design and build what has no precedent, no proven path, and no tidy checklist to follow. This is where “Design for Invention” begins.
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From the growing role of AI in design tools to the challenge of managing cumulative tolerances, these articles in this issue examine the technical details, design choices, and manufacturing considerations that determine whether a board works as intended.
Looking Forward to APEX EXPO 2026
I-Connect007 Magazine previews APEX EXPO 2026, covering everything from the show floor to the technical conference. For PCB designers, we move past the dreaded auto-router and spotlight AI design tools that actually matter.
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Digi-Key Partners with Accelerated Designs to Provide Symbols and Footprints for 7.2M Components
November 24, 2015 | Business WireEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Digi-Key Electronics, the industry leader in electronic component selection, availability and delivery, today announced an exclusive, global agreement to distribute software and design data from Accelerated Designs. Accelerated Designs focuses on providing engineers and electronics manufacturers EDA-tool-neutral software and data that improves efficiency of adding and managing new parts when designing circuits and printed circuit boards.
The flagship product of Accelerated Designs is Ultra Librarian, which is used to create and export symbols and footprints in a format that is compatible with nearly any EDA tool depending on one’s license. This enables organizations or teams to maintain a central repository of common components or approved parts lists/libraries (APLs) and allow individual engineers to use nearly any EDA tool they want to create their designs.
“Digi-Key is extremely pleased to sign Accelerated Designs as a supplier. To our engineering customer base, this means you can obtain libraries of symbols and footprints for hundreds of thousands Digi-Key’s parts, indexed with a Digi-Key part number, and compatible with your EDA tool,” said Randall Restle, Digi-Key Vice-President of Application Engineering. “Nearly all popular EDA tools are supported with Accelerated Designs, and Digi-Key remains committed to serving engineers’ decisions by remaining agnostic to the EDA tool platform they choose.”
Ultra Librarian uses the concept of templates to create parts, which increases accuracy, speed, and consistency of part creation and allows global changes to be made to your library. Automation is the key component to the Ultra Librarian tool. It allows the user to build their component accurately one time and then export it to the CAD tool(s) of their choice. Additionally, Accelerated Designs provides the industry’s largest library of components with 7.2 million parts and growing monthly.
“Our aim is to make using parts purchased from Digi-Key as efficient as possible. Accelerated Designs filled the gap that no one in the industry effectively addressed,” said Restle. “Finally, engineers can get a symbol and footprint for a device without having to create them one by themselves.”
He added, “Manufacturers supplying Digi-Key now have a partner that can help reduce a barrier in customers adopting their new devices. By virtue of working with Accelerated Designs to build libraries of symbols and footprints of their newest devices, Digi-Key will automatically distribute those design assets for them and on the web pages where they will be found.”
About Accelerated Designs
Accelerated Designs is an International EDA and PCB Design Services company who have developed a specialist library tool - Ultra Librarian. This can be tailored to fit the needs of an individual or an enterprise with its existing library of over 7 million parts that can be ported to virtually any CAD tool. Accelerated Designs was established in January 2000 and is based Huntsville, Alabama. The founder has over 35 years of experience in the PCB design arena and has spent much of that time creating innovative ways to serve the PCB community and revolutionize library creation. As a company, Accelerated Designs has invested over 15 man years in developing the Ultra Librarian tool.
About Digi-Key Electronics
Digi-Key Electronics, based in Thief River Falls, Minn., is a global, full-service provider of both prototype/design and production quantities of electronic components, offering more than three million products from over 650 quality name-brand manufacturers. With over one million products in stock and an impressive selection of online resources, Digi-Key is committed to stocking the broadest range of electronic components in the industry and providing the best service possible to its customers.
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Dragonfly Energy Secures Additional Nevada Tech Hub Funding
05/07/2026 | Globe NewswireDragonfly Energy Holdings Corp., an industry leader in energy storage and maker of Battle Born Batteries®, announced it has been selected for a second consecutive round of funding through the Nevada Tech Hub.
Designing Without a Rulebook: When Engineering Becomes Innovation
05/05/2026 | Stephen V. Chavez, Siemens EDAWhat if the very rules that made you successful as a PCB designer are the ones now holding you back? This reminds me of walking the floor and attending sessions at both PCB West 2025 and APEX EXPO 2026, where one common theme stood out: More designs with traditional PCB “best practices” simply don’t apply. It’s not because they’re wrong, but because the problems we’re solving have fundamentally changed. In some cases, those best practices can actually limit performance. This is where PCB design moves beyond optimization and into something far more challenging: designing without a rulebook.
Custom LIDAR Optics Support Mission-Critical Performance
05/05/2026 | PRNewswireMeller Optics, Inc. has introduced custom fabricated LIDAR optics that can be engineered for specific UV to IR transmission requirements featured in airborne, ground, and maritime defense systems.
Trouble in Your Tank: In Complex Systems, Design Rules Aren’t Optional
05/06/2026 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankThere is no question that the electronics industry, especially in circuit board design and fabrication, advanced packaging, and innovation throughout the value chain, has seen a significant transformation, whether it be in materials, system architecture, HDI and ultra HDI, semiconductors, or chiplets. AI and high-performance computing (HPC) are driving change across several fronts, including material properties, assembly techniques (think hybrid bonding), and power management.
EMI Strengthens Test Capability with Acculogic Flying Probe System
05/04/2026 | Express Manufacturing, Inc.Express Manufacturing, Inc. (EMI), a global electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, has added the Acculogic Scorpion 980E Flying Probe Test System to its inspection and test operations, giving the company greater flexibility in how it validates and supports today’s increasingly complex electronics.