-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueOpportunities and Challenges
In this issue, our expert contributors discuss the many opportunities and challenges in the PCB design community, and what can be done to grow the numbers of PCB designers—and design instructors.
Embedded Design Techniques
Our expert contributors provide the knowledge this month that designers need to be aware of to make intelligent, educated decisions about embedded design. Many design and manufacturing hurdles can trip up designers who are new to this technology.
Manufacturing Know-how
For this issue, we asked our expert contributors to share their thoughts on the absolute “must-know” aspects of fab, assembly and test that all designers should understand. In the end, we’re all in this together.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Polar Instruments Driven by Customer Demand
April 8, 2021 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Andy Shaughnessy recently spoke with Geoffrey Hazelett, vice president of sales for Polar Instruments, about the virtual IPC APEX EXPO and the eventual return of live trade shows and conferences. They also discussed some of the company’s newest releases, many of which came about through customer demand.
Andy Shaughnessy: Geoffrey, IPC APEX EXPO is wrapping up, but I understand that you still have a few committee meetings to attend.
Geoffrey Hazelett: Yes, I was not working the virtual booth. I’ve got the D-21 High-Speed High Frequency Design Subcommittee, and the D-24d High-Frequency Signal Loss Task Group, which I co-chair with Xiaoning Ye, a nice gentleman from Intel.
Shaughnessy: And I know that Polar has been working on a lot of things throughout the pandemic.
Hazelett: Yes. This last year with COVID and everything, despite that, our engineers and engineering team have been working really hard. Just with Speedstack alone, last year, we had six releases bringing out new features, and we’re releasing right now our third release of Speedstack this year, which has brought forth some really great features that some of our customers have been asking about for a while. Other customers are really excited to see these new features, because they haven’t asked for them, but they wanted them. They didn’t know that they wanted them yet, specifically the shielding materials.
Our library was released last month, and this month the Tatsuta materials will be included in the library. Additionally, we also have some exciting new features, like the ability to apply plating colors so that you can assign different colors within Speedstack for whether a layer is plated or not.
Shaughnessy: You could just glance at it and see whether it was a plated layer?
Hazelett: Funny enough, last year a lot of our customers were building boards in the four- to 12-layer range, and our wizard for generating stackups had a cap of 64 layers, a pretty thick board. Last year, due to customer demand actually, we had to increase that to 128 layers because we had some customers building boards that were that complex. Our customers today are doing some incredible things, where customers are focusing in the 16–18-gigahertz ranges and doing 56-gigabit channels, and even pushing 112-gigabit channels. So, it’s really exciting seeing how some of our customers are really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in a printed circuit board and what technologies they’re using to build some of these boards.
Shaughnessy: During the pandemic, innovation barely slowed, at least in our industry.
Hazelett: Yes. Everyone was nervous that society might collapse, but within the tech sector, it was booming for our industry. I remember when the pandemic hit trying to find a Logitech webcam, and they were going for a markup of 200%, and I thought that’s crazy. People were selling used ones for $400 and up.
At Polar, we’ve upgraded a bunch of our network stuff so we could work from home. And I’m sure we’re not the only ones who have been rolling out tech upgrades during this time to facilitate their employees to continue working. That then feeds back into the cycle of the increased demand for tech, which then helps our business, our industry.
To read this entire article, which appeared in the 2021 edition of Show & Tell, click here.
Suggested Items
ASMPT to Exhibit Smart Manufacturing at IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/27/2024 | ASMPTWith its innovative, data-driven Intelligent Factory concept and a comprehensive hardware and software portfolio around SMT production, market and innovation leader ASMPT will be a major presence at the IPC APEX EXPO 2024, the industry’s main event in California.
Mycronic to Showcase More Versatile, High-productivity Assembly Solutions at IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/27/2024 | MycronicMycronic, the leading Sweden-based electronics assembly solutions provider, will continue to respond to growing customer demand for high-flexibility, high-productivity solutions for zero-defect PCB assembly at IPC APEX EXPO 2024 in Anaheim, CA on April 9 - 11.
TRI Launches New Advanced Packaging 3D CT AXI Solution
03/26/2024 | TRITest Research, Inc. (TRI) proudly announces the launch of the SEMI 3D CT AXI solution, TR7600F3D SII Plus, marking a paradigm shift in precision and reliability for high-reliability electronics manufacturing, such as the Advanced Packaging Industry.
Blackfox Ready for IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/26/2024 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007Blackfox Training Institute offers IPC-certified training for a myriad of PCB assembly techniques and standard certifications. With many technologists beginning to eye retirement, this training is at a premium. I recently spoke with Jamie Noland, director of training and education for Blackfox, about the company’s latest educational efforts, and his plans for the upcoming IPC APEX EXPO, where Blackfox will be exhibiting.
iNEMI/IPC White Paper on Complex Integrated Systems Highlights Future Technology and Manufacturing Ecosystem Needs
03/25/2024 | IPCToday’s system solutions combine more varied functionality, such as digital, analog, optical, micro-mechanical, etc., packed into smaller form factors. As a result, electronics manufacturing has to deliver increasingly complex integration of diverse technologies with system designs that blur the distinction between chip, package, board, and assembly.