Tag Archives: PCB West

Paying the Price

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Interesting discussion going on at LinkedIn, where a handful of folks are debating the going rates for PCB design in China.

It started when someone asked what the “least per hour charges” to attract a client for PCB layout outside China (emphasis mine). (The question was asked by a LinkedIn member in Pakistan.) Quickly others chimed in with the usual “you get what you pay for” refrain (when it comes to PCB design, I tend to agree).

Someone from Israel noted that they charge by the pad. Those who commented on hourly charges relayed reports (unconfirmed, by the way) of $5 (China) to $10 (Pakistan).

PCD&F conducts an annual salary survey, and certainly a $10/hour contract rate would undermine even the lowest paid designer responding to that questionnaire. But keep in mind, these are not confirmed quotes. And as the folks at PCB West last week showed in spades, there’s no comparison between a button pusher and a PCB design engineer.

PCB West Opens Doors, Eyes

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It was 103 degrees in San Jose last week, but inside the action was even hotter.

We had a terrific time at PCB West. Attendance was up markedly — 26% for the exhibition and 35% for the conference. Signal integrity remains a major area of interest, although during the PCB Designers Roundtable — cosponsored by the good folks from the Silicon Valley Designers Council chapter — it was revealed that perhaps one-third of designers don’t actually perform SI analysis. (It’s left for someone else to do.) Proponents, including the ubiquitous Rick Hartley, stressed that all designers should perform some level of SI.

Also revealed: a large percentage of designers continue to manually route their boards, despite evidence showing autorouters could save time. Whether they do so because they are trying to protect their jobs is certainly understandable, but the notion that autorouting could free up resources that could then be used in other areas (such as SI analysis) bears consideration. 

Many of the technical sessions that accompanied the trade show were packed as designers and process engineers took advantage of the free sessions to glean valuable information on reducing layer counts, thermal management, post-assembly cleaning, and CAD-CAM. In one eye-opening presentation, Don Trenholm of Custom Analytical Services literally ran out of time showing slides of various counterfeited components.

And a quick shout-out to the fellows at SFM Technology, who hail from my hometown of Champaign, IL, and whom I only spoke with for a moment because those pesky customers kept showing up to look at their ECAD-MCAD tools.

PCB West Exhibits Open Today

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The exhibits for PCB West are open today from 11 to 7. Those in the Silicon Valley should strongly consider stopping by to take in the scores of software vendors, fabricators and EMS companies, and other service suppliers.

Also, there are numerous free technical sessions during the day, including talks on CAM practices, PWB design characteristics using miniature components, decreasing layer counts, test strategies, locating fraudulent/counterfeit components,  thermal management, post-assembly cleaning, how solar affects electronics manufacturers, and much more. And of course, the PCB Designers Roundtable, moderated by our own Pete Waddell.

We’re at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Be sure to stop by.

Getting Ready for September

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I thought summer was supposed to be a time when things slowed down, a time when people take vacations and some time to relax. No such thing is happening here at UPMG.

For the last few months, we’ve been busy putting the program together for PCB West. This year we’ve pared the conference down to three days. One of the reasons is we’re moving the Design Excellence Certificate program to an online learning site that we call Printed Circuit University. PCU will launch right around the time of PCB West. As I’ve mentioned before, it will be a resource site for everyone involved in PCB design and will include a certificate program similar to the DEC we’ve held at the PCB Design Conferences for years. Stay tuned for more information on PCU.

During the three-day conference this year, we’ve scheduled almost 40 classes and presentations on subjects from the basics series by Susy Webb to Tom Hausser’s universal routing grid. In between we’re covering EMI, transmission lines, RF design, flex, embedded passives and many other subjects important to designers and engineers. We’ve even added a Tuesday track that covers subjects like counterfeit components and LED boards.

This year exhibit sales are slightly ahead of last year, including every major EDA company in the PCB market, as well as manufacturing and materials suppliers closely involved in the world of PCBs. Yes, these are companies that want your business, but they are also great resources for your design questions.
Registration is now open online, and you can get a look at the exhibitor list and complete program, including the “free” classes on Wednesday, by going to www.pcbwest.com.

Bottom line, PCB West may be only three days this year, but it is chock full of opportunities for everyone. Hope to see you there, and stay in touch.

p.