PCB Chat

Karen Burnham feels your pain - the pain of EMC, that is. Karen is an EMC engineer, instructor, and founder of EMC United, a consulting company that aims to make EMC less painful for the rest of the PCB design engineering community. Karen joins Andy Shaughnessy to discuss some of the most common EMC challenges facing our industry today, a variety of solutions for these challenges, and design practices that can help you avoid EMC problems the first place. Karen also explains why EMC needs to become part of every high-speed PCB design cycle, and not an afterthought that's only addressed when a board fails FCC. Karen will be speaking at PCB East 2026, and she offers a preview of what attendees can expect to learn in her class, "EMC 101 - Fundamentals," which takes place April 30 at the DCU Convention Center in Worcester, MA.

What does Cadence's acquisition of EMA Design Automation mean for the respective companies, and the market? Mike Buetow considers the issues related to the EDA giant's acquisition of its largest VAR.

Scott Bright is co-founder and COO of Cadstrom IO, a new company that is coming up with tools for resolving some of the engineering problems that designers and engineers are encountering daily. Bright has more than 35 years of technology and management experience, including three years at IoT company Jiva, where he was CEO, and 13 at the engineering firm Synapse, which he co-founded and was CEO. Bright has designed hardware from back of the envelope sketch to high volume manufacturing for everything from commercial to the highest-reliability applications. As a career hardware developer, he understands the software problems endemic to product development. He discusses Cadstrom's new platform for catching errors the ERC flow misses with Andy Shaughnessy and Mike Buetow of PCEA.

In electronics manufacturing, defects don’t usually announce themselves. They happen in milliseconds, far faster than human perception, and often long before anyone realizes a process has drifted out of control. By the time failures show up in test, inspection, or worse, in the field, the root cause may be buried deep inside machine behavior that no one thought to question. When machines are assumed to be accurate instead of proven to be accurate, and when force is set but not verified, hidden variation creeps in. That variation can translate directly into cracked components, misalignment, latent damage, and long-term reliability risk. Michael Sivigny is SMT productivity & profit strategist and owner and general manager CeTaQ Americas, a company that has spent decades doing what most factories don’t, objectively measuring machine performance under real production conditions. Sivigny's work has repeatedly shown that even well-maintained, recently serviced equipment can operate outside of specification, quietly generating defects at high speed. In this conversation, we’ll dig into how accuracy validation and force measurement expose problems traditional troubleshooting misses, why OEM calibration alone is no longer enough for today’s miniaturized electronics, and how statistically sound measurement practices improve not only yield and uptime, but long-term product reliability. If you believe reliability starts long before functional test, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Wally Rhines the spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, part of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. He joins Mike Buetow each quarter to share details from the latest ESD Alliance report on sales of computer-aided engineering tools, semiconductor tools, PCB design software, related IP and services, and employment. We discuss: The latest PCB/MCB design tool market data The 19-quarter streak of year-over-year gains (can it continue?) The massive spike in Asia sales The remarkable resilience of the Americas in maintaining ECAD market share The employment growth -- will everyone eventually work in ECAD?

Jon Urquhart is director of global applications engineering at Precision Valve and Automation — one of the world’s leading developers of dispensing, coating, and industrial motion-automation systems. Since joining PVA in 1993, Urquhart has become widely recognized for his expertise in fluid material processing, precision dispensing, and the engineering-to-manufacturing handoff that so often makes or breaks product reliability. Urquhart holds multiple patents and has helped shape advanced processes used in industries where the stakes couldn’t be higher — from aerospace and EV battery systems to semiconductor packaging, medical devices, and high-density electronics assembly. His work spans everything from protective coatings that safeguard electronics in extreme environments, to next-generation thermal interface material (TIM) deposition, to automation strategies that reduce human error, improve consistency, and dramatically scale production. He joins Mike Konrad to discuss the real-world challenges of protecting critical electronics and batteries, the latest advances in TIM materials and deposition, sustainable precision-coating techniques, and the power of a strong collaboration model between vendors, manufacturers, and lab technicians.

Margaret (Maggie) Frachioni is a semiconductor hardware engineer at General Motors, where, armed with a bachelor’s in computer engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, she started out college as a software engineer in its automotive test lab. While at GM, she started work toward her master’s at Wayne State University in Detroit. Last year, she was part of the first PCEA Certified Printed Circuit Designer course taught as part of a university curriculum. She speaks with Mike Buetow on her evolving role at GM, her college preparation for electronics engineering, and how the CPCD class altered her career arc from semiconductor methodology to designing and building boards.

Since 2018, Reliability Matters has been building a knowledge vault, capturing the wisdom of industry experts for engineers everywhere. In this special year-end episode, we celebrate the journey, the growth, and the community that made it possible.

Mike Konrad continues a dive into the world of contract manufacturing—a vital piece of the electronics ecosystem. Joining him are two industry leaders who know this space inside and out. First, we have Daniel Stanphill, SMT process engineer at Aurora Boardworks, and alongside him, Sean Kincaid, president of K & F Electronics. Both companies provide contract manufacturing services to a wide range of customers, helping turn design concepts into dependable, production-ready circuit assemblies. In this conversation, we’ll explore what makes for a successful relationship between contract manufacturers and their customers. We’ll talk about the types of customers they look for, the challenges they face in today’s manufacturing environment, and the common mistakes that can derail a project if not addressed early on. Most importantly, we’ll dig into best practices that can help customers and manufacturers work together more effectively.

The next two episodes of Reliability Matters will be all about contract manufacturing, an area that can make or break the reliability and success of a product. Mike Konrad's guest on this episode is Raymond Novara, founder and owner of East End Assemblies, a US-based contract manufacturer recognized for its focus on quality, customer service, and compliance with AS9100 and IPC standards. During our conversation, Raymond talks about key questions that every OEM should be considering: What are the best practices for selecting a contract manufacturer? What common mistakes do companies make when working with a CM—especially in communication and hand-offs? How can design-for-manufacturability feedback prevent problems down the road? What should customers know about transitioning from prototypes to volume production? And how can contract manufacturers help ensure long-term product reliability, not just passing initial tests? If you’re an OEM evaluating partners, an engineer preparing to hand off a design, or someone interested in how contract manufacturers contribute to product reliability, this episode is packed with insights.

Note: This is the fourth of four episodes on the subject of soldering materials. Today, we're diving into a topic that's reshaping how we think about thermal management, energy efficiency, and long-term performance in electronics manufacturing—low temperature soldering. Joining Mike Konrad is Dr. HongWen Zhang, principal metallurgist and R&D manager of the Alloy Group at Indium Corporation. Dr. Zhang is not only a seasoned materials scientist with a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering, a master’s in materials science and engineering and in mechanical engineering and a bachelor’s in metallurgical physical chemistry he’s also coinventor of Durafuse, a family of solder alloys that are redefining what's possible at low reflow temperatures—which, reportedly, does not compromise reliability. In this episode, we’ll explore how low temperature solders are helping manufacturers lower energy consumption, protect heat-sensitive components, and still meet the rigorous mechanical and environmental demands of today’s electronics—from wearables to wafer-level packaging. We’ll also talk about the challenges of brittleness, drop shock resistance, activation and encapsulation of no clean activators, and how cutting-edge materials research is solving problems that used to be considered trade-offs. Whether you’re a reliability engineer, a process expert, or just solder-curious, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

Today’s guest is Matthias Wagner, chief executive and cofounder of Flux. Flux is maker of a Agentic AI-based PCB design platform and programmable simulator that runs in a browser environment. Regular listeners may know we have spoken with Matthias a few times in the past, most recently in February 2024. Since we last spoke, Flux has built out its platform with a variety of tools for design planning, parts searching, netlist generation, design review, firmware coding and testing and debugging, to name a few. We discuss AI-powered PCB design challenges Language prompting capabilities Democratization of product design, and Technical specifications and platform limits.

This is the third of four episodes on the subject of soldering materials. Today, we’re continuing our deep dive into the world of soldering materials, from advanced alloys and flux chemistries to global manufacturing strategy and materials innovation, with one of the industry’s most respected leaders. Joining Mike Konrad is Ross Berntson, president and CEO of Indium Corp. Berntson has been with Indium for nearly 30 years, starting as a product specialist and rising through the ranks with leadership roles in product management, technical support, and international operations. He even spent time leading Indium’s Asia Holdings while based in Singapore, strengthening the company’s presence across Southeast Asia. In his current role as CEO, Berntson sets the strategic direction for a global materials powerhouse, one that’s known not only for its high-performance soldering products but for its commitment to innovation, collaboration, and engineering support through the company’s “One Engineer to Another” philosophy. Berntson holds degrees in chemistry, teaching and an MBA from Cornell University, where he earned several prestigious academic awards. He’s also deeply engaged in both the electronics industry and his community, serving on multiple boards and leading with a strong emphasis on culture, opportunity, and respect, the core of what Indium calls “The Indium Way.” In this episode, we’ll discuss how soldering materials are evolving to meet the demands of modern electronics, from miniaturization and harsh environments to UHDI and advanced packaging. We’ll also talk about Indium’s unique positioning in the industry, the challenges of global supply chains, and what the future of soldering looks like from the vantage point of a company that’s helped shape it.

Wally Rhines joins Mike Buetow each quarter to share details from the latest ESD Alliance report on sales of PCB design software, computer-aided engineering tools, semiconductor tools, related IP and services, and employment. This chat, we discuss the long PCB/MCM design tool rally, a massive jump in employment. broader strength across the ECAD industry, and the effects US policies toward China are having on the market.

In this episode, Mike Konrad is joined by Chris Ward, founder and managing director of Solderking Assembly Materials, a UK-based manufacturer of solders and chemical consumables for electronic, electrical, and engineered assemblies. Ward brings decades of experience in soldering materials and chemical formulations—and he’s built a company committed to performance, consistency, and innovation. Earlier this year, Ward and his company were honored with the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, recognizing their exceptional export growth. That recognition earned him an invitation to Windsor Castle, where he had the distinct honor of meeting King Charles III. Today, we’ll explore the evolving world of soldering materials—from the realities behind “no-clean” flux, to reliability challenges in harsh environments, to innovations in solder chemistry that support today’s miniaturized and mission-critical electronics. Whether you're on the production floor, in the design lab, or managing quality and reliability, this is a conversation that brings valuable insight into the materials behind the mission.

Margaret Upshur is CEO of Mobius Materials, a global online marketplace for excess electronic components. Before founding Mobius, she was senior director of operations at Particle, which supplies application infrastructure for deploying software and models on computing or IoT devices. And while in college she cofounded a company that made a hand-held device to detect the alcohol content of liquids. Noting some $15 billion or more is wasted each year in unused or obsoleted components, Upshur founded Mobius to provide a platform for trading excess inventory much in the way Wall Street brokers trade stocks. We discuss her model for a sustainable, resilient supply chain; why the buyers and sellers on the Mobius platform can trade anonymously; as well as the PCB Community Meetup featuring a panel on the Ever-Changing Procurement Environment Mobius is sponsoring at PCB West on Oct. 1.