-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueDesigning Through the Noise
Our experts discuss the constantly evolving world of RF design, including the many tradeoffs, material considerations, and design tips and techniques that designers and design engineers need to know to succeed in this high-frequency realm.
Learning to Speak ‘Fab’
Our expert contributors clear up many of the miscommunication problems between PCB designers and their fab and assembly stakeholders. As you will see, a little extra planning early in the design cycle can go a long way toward maintaining open lines of communication with the fab and assembly folks.
Training New Designers
Where will we find the next generation of PCB designers and design engineers? Once we locate them, how will we train and educate them? What will PCB designers of the future need to master to deal with tomorrow’s technology?
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Ryan’s Hope: From Cop to CAD
May 16, 2023 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 4 minutes

I recently ran into Ryan Miller of NCAB Group at SMTA Atlanta. Ryan is a field application engineer and a columnist for Design007 Magazine who joined NCAB last year. In this interview, Ryan discusses his path from Air Force Security Forces to design engineer, and he outlines what he plans to accomplish at NCAB.
Andy Shaughnessy: Ryan, how are you doing? Nice to meet you in person after editing your column.
Ryan Miller: Thanks. I’m glad to be here.
Shaughnessy: Ryan, you haven’t been with NCAB very long. What is your job like?
Miller: I've been with NCAB Group for about a year, maybe a little longer. I'm a field application engineer and a design engineer. Since I've been here, I've watched the company grow immensely. NCAB Group is the market leader in PCB technology, and we're always adapting—not only with the market, but we're adapting to our customers’ needs as well. We always want to impress upon our customers that we take responsibility for the delivered PCB. There are so many companies out there today that just don't do that. But that's one of the things that we take pride in.
In my daily activities as a field application engineer, I typically help out layout engineers, and make changes to a PCB design. Maybe there's a problem with the PCB at the factory, and we’ve got to work out that problem. Sometimes the design may be new and engineers will ask for a stackup and impedance calculations. Other times I may provide DFM support.
Shaughnessy: So, part of your job is being a DFM guy.
Miller: Sure, I do the DFM Analysis, but not as much as I did in my previous role. Since I came on board with NCAB Group, one of the things we started here is the Design Plus program. Here’s how it works: We've found that many of our customers have a need for PCB design work, and they don't always have the means or the capability for that design work. Now, they can give us their schematics and we do that design work. And that gives us an advantage because we can go straight into manufacturing with a design that is already optimized for our manufacturing processes. This speeds up the process during tooling.
As designers, when we’re designing a PCB, we're usually designing it from the perspective of what we need in the design. We not always thinking about what it's going to take to get that PCB manufactured successfully, right? With our design services, we already know that the PCB will get through the factory smoothly.
Shaughnessy: It sounds like you spend some of your time educating the consumer.
Miller: Yes, that's my main goal, to educate customers and support their designs, so that it goes really quickly when we get a design. Next thing you know, I turn around and the factory is building the board. It’s amazingly quick. We shave off a bunch of time and it saves a lot of time at tooling. You know, we just had a $30,000 order that was held up at the factory. And it needed design work that cost about $1,100. In this rare exception, the factory was able to fix the issue during tooling, so we saved our customer some money.
When I wake up in the morning, my goal is to help people. My attitude toward helping people is that I'm in a unique position. You know, I used to be in law enforcement.
Shaughnessy: Really? That’s a different kind of customer service. Everybody in this industry has a different story.
Miller: I was in the Air Force for 10 years. I was with Air Force Security Forces for six years then I cross trained into the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI, or OSI for short). When I got out, I used the GI Bill and got a degree in electronics engineering. I wanted be an electronics design engineer, and the circuit board world just kind of sucked me in. With this job, I get to feed that need to help people. When the customers call me here, they're not always happy. But you know, it's not the worst day of their life, like cops sometimes deal with. I'm very happy to wake up in the morning and think about circuit boards and even brag about them.
Shaughnessy: I heard that NCAB Group has been growing pretty well, with over $400 million in revenue last year.
Miller: Yes, over the year that I've been here, we’ve been growing quite a bit. The technology world moves that quickly. But overall, I think that building relationships has been the number one key to our success.
Shaughnessy: It’s been great talking with you, Ryan.
Miller: Thank you, Andy.
Suggested Items
Green Circuits Expands Large-Format PCBA Capabilities with Installation of JUKI Primo Screen Printer
05/05/2025 | Green CircuitsGreen Circuits, a full-service Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) partner to leading OEMs, proudly announces the installation of the JUKI Primo Large-Format Screen Printer, expanding its capabilities to support printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) up to 33.5" x 24".
ASC Sunstone Circuits to Exhibit at PCB Detroit 2025
05/05/2025 | ASC SunstoneASC Sunstone Circuits will be exhibiting at the inaugural session of PCB Detroit to be held on June 2 and 3 on the campus of Wayne State University.
HyRel Technologies Celebrates Future Innovators: Intern Program Empowers the Next Generation of Engineers and Professionals
05/01/2025 | HyRelHyRel Technologies, a global provider of quick turn semiconductor modification solutions, is proud to spotlight its 7th class of interns in partnership with Peoria Unified School District, featuring three outstanding young women who are already making meaningful contributions to the company's innovative engineering and operations efforts.
SEMI 3D & Systems Summit to Spotlight Trends in Hybrid Bonding, Chiplet Architecture and Geopolitical Dynamics
05/01/2025 | SEMILeading experts in 3D integration and systems for semiconductor manufacturing applications will gather at the annual SEMI 3D & Systems Summit, June 25-27, 2025, in Dresden.
Cadence Expands Design IP Portfolio Optimized for Intel 18A and Intel 18A-P Technologies, Advancing AI, HPC and Mobility Applications
05/01/2025 | Cadence Design SystemsCadence announced a significant expansion of its portfolio of design IP optimized for Intel 18A and Intel 18A-P technologies and certification of Cadence® digital and analog/custom design solutions for the latest Intel 18A process design kit (PDK).