Insulectro Hosts Silicon Valley Designers Council Meeting

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On October 15, about 25 people gathered for the IPC Designers Council Silicon Valley Chapter meeting at Insulectro's facility in Mountain View, California. The 1.5-hour meeting opened with a warm welcome from Chapter President Bob McCreight, CID, a PCBA designer at Tesla Motors, and Jason Marsh, VP of product management at Insulectro.

The meeting focused on solder joints, and how circuit design can contribute to the success or failure of a solder joint.

Carl Schattke, senior PCB design engineer at Tesla, was the main speaker. Carl's presentation covered a variety of facets of PCB design, from shadowing to the location of component based on weight and surface finishes. The presentation was filled with great images that supported Schattke’s thoughtful coverage of these topics.

The room was filled primarily with well-seasoned circuit designers, a couple of suppliers, and a few people from Shenmao Technology Group, who provided some of the PowerPoint images for Schatte’s presentation.

 About the IPC Designers Council

The IPC Designer's council was formed in 1991 to provide continuing education of the PCB designer. There is no cost to join the Designers Council. While regular IPC membership is reserved for companies, the Designers Council is a separate professional society for individuals, with its own separate benefits. These include discounts on design-related events and IPC standards, as well as the chance for designers to advance their technical education and network with other PCB designers and technologists at local chapter meetings.

Local chapters host roundtable discussions, facility tours, and “lunch & learn” presentations on critical design and manufacturing issues. Chapters also form study groups to help members study for the CID (Certified Interconnect Designer-Basic) and CID+ advanced exams.

There are Designers Council chapters around the world, but there might not be a local DC chapter near you. Don’t despair. If you have at least 12 designers who can meet at least four times a year, why not start your own chapter?     

If you would like to learn more about the IPC Designers Council, or even start your own local chapter, send an e-mail to design@ipc.org, or visit http://dc.ipc.org. 

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