Much Ado about Sales December 2016 and Marketing p.12
Marketing in the Maturing EDA Industry p.18
How Selling EDA Software Has Changed...or Not p.26
Much More!
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 1
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Feature Content
12 Sales and Marketing Sales and marketing in the PCB industry used to be fairly simple. Salespeople cold-called potential custom- ers until they found a buyer, and marketing profession- als stressed the importance of attending trade shows and writing conference papers. Then came the Inter- net, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. What approaches should you use?
12 Much Ado about Sales and Marketing by the I-Connect007 Research Team 32 Sales and Marketing with DownStream Interview with Rick Almeida 36 Flex and Rigid Sales and Marketing 26 with Al Wasserzug Interview — Cirexx International 40 Altium’s Sales Plan: Deal Directly with Designers Interview with Lawrence Romine 44 Five New Books that Will Change Your Perspective on Sales and Marketing 32 36 by Dan Beaulieu
44 FEATURE COLUMNS 18 Marketing in the Maturing EDA Industry by Barry Olney 26 How Selling EDA Software Has Changed...or Not 40 by Abby Monaco
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54 More Content COLUMNS 8 Sales and Marketing in PCB Design by Andy Shaughnessy 54 PCB-Based Antennas and PIM Concerns by John Coonrod 60 “Sparks” to the Rescue in RF Design by Tim Haag 64 Understanding the Practicalities of Resin Application and Curing 60 by Alistair Little 64 SHORTS 10 Researchers Peer into Atom-sized Tunnels in Hunt for Better Battery 16 Tuning Magnetic Properties for Better Data Storage 24 Graphene Calligraphy 35 Paper-Based Skin Patch HIGHLIGHTS Monitors Dehydration 52 PCB007 39 Screening of Databases is the Basis 58 MilAero007 for Developing New Energy Materials 68 Top Ten PCBDesign007 42 Novel Microsupercapacitor Exploits Three-Dimensional Porous Electrodes DEPARTMENTS 70 Events Calendar 50 LED Solution: An Opportunity to Stand out Through Design & 71 Advertisers Index & Masthead Additional Fuctionalities
6 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
THE SHAUGHNESSY REPORT
Sales and Marketing in PCB Design
by Andy Shaughnessy I-CONNECT007 Sales in the electronics industry used to be so ing pros have gained an abundance of constantly simple: You started cold-calling and you called evolving social media tools to help them ply their until you made a sale. Ditto for marketing: Your trades. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook seem to company attended and exhibited at trade shows, be the most popular in the PCB landscape, espe- presented papers at conferences, and (hopefully) cially among the more “techie” users. you advertised in the trade publications of your But many of you are, ahem, veterans of this choice. And if you were selling EDA tools, you flew industry. When you turned 18 you voted for Nixon around the globe doing presentations. or Carter. Are you really going to learn every new Sometimes you salespeople even acquired social media tool? If you’re in sales, you may have some “hot leads” à la David Mamet’s fine movie to. “Glengarry Glen Ross.” (That movie should be Yes, your toolbox has a lot more tools in it. required viewing for anyone in sales.) But still, it all But selling and marketing hasn’t gotten any eas- came down to cold-calling. ier, especially with millennials coming into the All of those methods are still being used to- workplace. I’ve heard horror stories about young day. But in just the last decade, sales and market- people blowing off appointments and refusing to
8 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 We’ve been accelerating the design cycle for over 20 years. We have a long history of real-time innovation, creating new techniques on-the-fly to keep project schedules on-track. Partnerships with the world’s leading high-speed digital design companies keep us at the forefront of advanced system-level signal integrity. Our solutions help our customers accelerate the design cycle, build better products and save money in the process. Whether your challenge is obtaining qualifed simulation models, data scrubbing and conversion or integrating SI analysis with your design flow, SiSoft’s experts can help.
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www.sisoft.com SALES AND MARKETING IN PCB DESIGN
answer emails from sales types. And they are the focuses on the near-death of the single-vendor future of this industry, whether we like it or not. software solution. The old saying, “Sales is like fishing out of a In an interview, DownStream Technologies boat, but marketing is like convincing the fish to founder Rick Almeida explains his sales and mar- jump into the boat with you,” still applies. You still keting philosophy, and DownStream’s use of di- have to reach out to potential customers any way rect sales, telesales and value-added resellers. Al you can. You still have to tell your company’s story, Wasserzug of Cirexx International focuses on the and sell that story, any way you can. sales and marketing techniques that are specific to So, this month we shine a light on sales and flex circuits, as well as rigid PCBs. And Lawrence marketing in this industry. Naturally, we began Romine of Altium discusses the company’s philos- with a survey. The survey results were surprising, ophy of selling directly to the PCB designer, not especially when some respondents admitted that the suits in the C suite, and how Altium manages their company had no sales or marketing plan at to gain market share without necessarily convert- all. They just winged it. I wonder how that’s work- ing existing users of a rival’s toolset. ing? The results can be found in the article “Much We also have a great article by columnist Dan Ado about Sales and Marketing.” Beaulieu. In this piece, Dan reviews his five favorite Then we asked five contributors to share books on sales and selling. If you’re in sales, you’ll their take on selling and marketing in PCB de- want to order all five of these, pronto. sign. In our cover story, Barry Olney of In-Circuit Have a great holiday, and I’ll be seeing you in Design Pty Ltd explains how EDA sales and mar- 2017! PCBDESIGN keting techniques have evolved as EDA has ma- tured, and he traces the drop in tool cost over time, along with the increase in tool capabili- ties. Next, Abby Monaco of Intercept Technol- Andy Shaughnessy is managing ogy discusses how the Internet and social media editor of The PCB Design Magazine. have enabled salespeople to target exactly the He has been covering PCB design right buyer, to the point that a salesperson al- for 17 years. He can be reached by ready knows what kind of tool you need before clicking here. he ever makes direct contact with you. She also
Researchers Peer into Atom-sized Tunnels in Hunt for Better Battery
Battery researchers seeking im- His team has focused on devel- proved electrode materials have oping a cathode based on manga- focused on “tunneled” structures nese dioxide, a very low-cost and that make it easier for charge-car- environmentally-friendly material rying ions to move in and out of with high storage capacity. Man- the electrode. Now a team led by ganese dioxide has a lattice struc- a researcher at the University of Il- ture with regularly spaced tunnels linois at Chicago has shown that that allow charge carriers—like certain large ions can hold the tunnels open so that lithium ions—to move in and out freely. the charge-carrying ions can enter and exit the elec- The finding shows that tunnel stabilizers can help trode easily and quickly. in the transfer of ions into tunnels and the rate of “Significant research has been done to increase charge and discharge, Shahbazian-Yassar said. the energy density and power density of lithium ion “With potassium ions staying in the center of the battery systems,” says Reza Shahbazian-Yassar, as- tunnels, the capacity retention improves by half un- sociate professor of mechanical and industrial engi- der high cycling current, which means the battery can neering at UIC. hold on to its capacity for a longer time,” he said.
10 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
FEATURE
Much Ado about Sales and Marketing by I-Connect007 Research Team We sent this survey to several sales leaders; the results were informative, at times surprising, We all know that without a concerted sales and even a bit disappointing, especially when effort there are no customers, and without cus- some of the participants reported that they had tomers there is no business. It is also no secret no sales and marketing plan at all. Figures 1 and that most companies in the printed circuit 2 illustrate the demographics of those who re- board fabrication and assembly businesses have sponded. suffered from lack of sales over the years— pos- sibly because company leaders are traditionally technologists, engineers or operations people. And these people have very little, if any inter- Primary Business of Respondents est, in the art of sales and marketing. In fact, until recently, most companies did not believe in marketing their companies at all—figuring that if they built great products, 1 customers would show up at their door. But 11 times are changing and companies have been forced to focus more on their sales and market- ing effort as they realize that they must find 2 new customers and win their business if they 2 are going to live another day. Realizing that, we at I-Connect007 recently surveyed our readers to get a better idea of what company leaders thought about sales and mar- keting. We did this for a couple of reasons. First, Suppliers PCB Fabricators Consultants Assy. OEMs Designers we were curious; second, we wanted to learn more about our readers, what they need and Figure 1: Primary business of respondents of the want, and how to best help them. 2016 I-Connect007 sales and marketing survey.
12 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 Will it Fit?
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Learn More MUCH ADO ABOUT SALES AND MARKETING
2. What are the greatest challenges in working with reps? Results indicated that people felt it was difficult to keep reps focused and working on the product. Also mentioned was making sure reps were properly trained and educated, to ensure complete product knowledge. Other is- sues mentioned were territory conflicts and dis- tance, forecasting, and loyalty; some of you felt that reps’ and company interests were not al- ways fully aligned.
3. What are the greatest challenges in working with direct salespeople? Some respondents stated no major draw- backs, while many cited the expense of direct salespeople. Motivating direct salespeople to get new business was considered a serious chal- lenge as was lack of technical knowledge. Get- Figure 2: Location of respondents to the sales and ting them out of the office was cited as one of marketing survey. the biggest challenges. And there was concern about getting them to sell what you build rather than what you don’t build. We also asked respondents’ titles; more than 60% were in upper management positions rang- 4. What is the overall greatest challenge ing from owner/founder to general and busi- in your sales process? ness managers. Another 20%+ were in a sales Representative responses include: function with the remainder in design, engi- neering and similar capacities, which indicated • Getting new accounts that responses were indeed from our intended • Price audience. • Selling against offshore The following is a summary of our findings. • Developing a plan and working that plan for results 1. What’s your preference—direct sales • Forecasting and budgeting people or sales representatives? • The entire lead generation process and Essentially two-thirds of the respondents making the sales people stick to it preferred direct sales, while one-third preferred sales reps. A variety of reasons were named, in- Sadly, albeit truthfully, one person said, cluding: “The PCB industry has left the country.”
• You own them and can therefore direct 5. How long does it take for you to them convert a prospect to a customer? • They are better motivated because they The conversion-time breakdown can be sell technology… seen in Figure 3. Generally, the respondents an- • You can control their behavior tied to swered around three months to a year to convert corporate goals a prospect to a customer. Others, meanwhile, said it depends on the scope and complexity of For the most part, our responders preferred the project, and the qualification process by the direct salespeople but found them very expen- customer. sive as opposed to reps.
14 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 MUCH ADO ABOUT SALES AND MARKETING
30
25
20
15
10
5
0 Figure 3: Length of time to convert from prospect to customer.
A few notable comments: • “A good salesperson does not follow a • “Be careful of customers who are too canned approach.” easy to convert.” • “Some inside training and some outside • “The larger the longer.” training depending on the individuals.” • “…the day of the first meeting to 2 years.” • “No sales department.” • “We have a PPT training program 6. What advice/strategy would you give covering every aspect of the sales from a salesperson in this market? lead generation to…the first sales call… Most of the answers were covered by these to winning the first quote, etc.” comments: 8. How did you develop your sales plan? • Treat your job as a career The responses included: • Be serious about it • Know the product • “We don’t have one.” • Shut up and listen • “Our plan is to sell more.” • What your customer says is more • “It’s confidential.” important than what you say • “President comes up with an idea of what • Tell the truth always to sell…. the rest of the team comes up • Know your prospects and understand with what the customer really wants.” their needs • “Doing a line by line analysis with the right people.” And one person said, “Find another indus- • “Many years of experience.” try.” 9. How do you target or select your 7. Do you have sales training programs customers? for your salespeople? We got quite a range of answers: • Yes: 44% • No: 56% • “Poorly” • “Develop ideal customer profile and use it A sampling of the comments: as a filter”
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 15 MUCH ADO ABOUT SALES AND MARKETING
• “Industry segments” 11. What do you think are the most • “360-degree assessment” effective sales strategies to use? • “Based on needs” This question had the greatest number of re- • “Type of products they need” sponses, with most distilled into this list: • “End-market segment” • “Targeting specific organizations and • Demand hard work applications” • Utilize direct sales calls • “Trade shows” • Funnel • “Target our competitors’ customers” • Understand your capabilities • “Face-to-face meetings” • Mention value, not price • Offer a solution to the problem We’re not quite sure if the question wasn’t • Pay them well and receive results clear or if perhaps there is not much real target- • Create a landmine map ing going on. • Trust them • Measure and support the team to 10. What are the top three attributes obtain goals of a great salesperson? Responses were a variation of some great at- Conclusion tributes: Although the results of this survey show that we still have a long way to go to be a sales- • Hard working driven industry, it also reflects a growing inter- • Passionate est in sales and marketing. We received many • Trustworthy more serious and thoughtful answers than not • Honest and detected common themes among the vari- • Knowledgeable ous stated company philosophies, which we • Motivated found interesting. Overall, results indicated a • Relationship-oriented great deal more focus on knowing the product • Aware of the importance of closing and the customers than we have found in past • Personable surveys, which means that our industry is tak- • Strategically minded ing sales and marketing seriously—and that’s a • Persevering very good thing. PCBDESIGN
Tuning Magnetic Properties for Better Data Storage
The ever-increasing amounts of solid-state device in which several electronic data that we generate magnetic and electrical properties in our personal and professional can be changed and reversed by lives require new storage technol- inserting and removing ions. ogies that can fit lots of data into The team believes that their de- small physical spaces. The most vice could pave the way for spin- promising solutions include solid- tronics—novel devices that exploit state redox devices, which work not only the charges on electrons by controlling the magnetic prop- but also the intrinsic angular mo- erties of materials. mentum, or spin, that is predicted Now, Tsuchiya, Terabe, and Aono at the Inter- by quantum mechanics. The new device contains national Center for Materials Nanoarchitecton- a thin film made from the iron oxide magnetite ics, NIMS and co-workers have developed a new (Fe3O4) next to a layer of lithium silicate.
16 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
FEATURE COLUMN: BEYOND DESIGN
Marketing in the Maturing EDA Industry by Barry Olney IN-CIRCUIT DESIGN PTY LTD / AUSTRALIA
The EDA industry has evolved from its enue comparison of these leading EDA compa- humble, free-for-all, Wild West beginnings nies is shown in Figure 1. into a mature industry employing a record Although only a small part of the total EDA 35,000 professionals and turning over a stag- revenue, the PCB sector has a different pecking gering $2 billion per quarter. Whilst the Amer- order: Mentor Graphics, Cadence, Zuken, Al- icas market is still recovering, Asia-Pacific and tium, Pulsonix, Intercept Technology and Cad- Japan have experienced double digit growth. Soft. Mentor, Cadence and Zuken are all com- But Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) peting in the enterprise and the mainstream have experienced a downturn over the past markets and all have double-digit market quarter. share. In terms of seat count, Altium, the rela- Cadence Design Systems, Mentor Graphics, tive new kid in town, is lower in the spectrum, and Synopsys, a.k.a. “The EDA Big Three,” have but positioning themselves into enterprise-level realized significant growth in IC design and si- solutions. gnoff and the functional verification sectors. There are also many free or low-cost PCB However, revenue for the PCB segment grew applications available such as KiCad, DipTrace, just 5.3% in 2014 to $853.1 million. The rev- Toporouter, DesignSpark, CircuitMaker, PCB123 and PCB Artist, just to name a few. But these packages mainly cater to the electronics enthu- siast or entry-level market. The major EDA revenue streams come from the following operations:
• Perpetual and term licensing of EDA software and intellectual property • Software support and post-contract maintenance • Professional services, including consulting and training
EDA companies generally innovate through acquisitions and mergers as it is easier to buy Figure 1: Revenue comparison of major EDA new technology than expend time and resourc- companies (source: Cadence 10-K filings). es developing a product and risk losing market
Table 1: Professional PCB design software tools.
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share. However, some tend to focus on partner- NT operating system came of age, and was able ing with other EDA vendors rather than acquisi- to support large databases with huge memory tion. But this leaves them vulnerable to outside requirements giving us a low-cost alternative to influence. Many small EDA start-ups develop UNIX applications. niche technology, an innovation that adds val- The thought of changing vendors, with no ue in a specific area. But their fast growth soon way to port libraries and databases, was a night- reaches a burn-rate threshold whereby their mare. And when you finally bite the bullet and momentum can no longer be sustained. These purchased new software, it was often worse than companies are ripe for the picking, as their tech- the previous solution, plus it had an extended nology can be merged into existing applications learning curve. Fortunately, EDA companies to provide an end-to-end solution. have cleaned up their act and are now provid- ing feature-rich tools, capable of analyzing and designing extremely complex products. The EDA vendors are working hard to keep up with the changing needs of their custom- The EDA industry is very ers. Failure to respond quickly to technological competitive and is characterized developments or customers’ increasing techno- by strong leadership positions logical requirements could make their products “ uncompetitive and obsolete. in specific segments of the EDA The early market is dominated by innova- tors and visionaries who will pay top dollar for market. new technology, allowing complex and expen- sive competitive tools to thrive. However, the mainstream market waits for the technology to be proven before jumping in. For instance, The EDA” industry is very competitive and power distribution network (PDN) planning is characterized by strong leadership positions was previously overlooked during the design in specific segments of the EDA market. These process but it is now becoming an essential part strong leadership positions can be maintained of PCB design. for significant periods of time as the software The mainstream market, representing more can be difficult to master and customers are dis- than 65% of the total EDA software market (Fig- inclined to make changes once their employees, ure 2), demands established technology at an and others in the industry, have developed fa- affordable price. Most enterprise tools require miliarity with a particular software product. For a high level of expertise to drive. Enterprise these reasons, much of the profitability arises tools differentiate based on the size of the team from areas in which a vendor is the market lead- (more people equals faster design, usually), and er. These industries can be cyclical and are sub- specialization within the team (e.g., SI/PI, DFM, ject to constant and rapid technological change thermal engineering, etc). The specialist uses and product obsolescence, price erosion, evolv- only a few tools, so he can learn them well and ing standards, short product life cycles, wide live with ease-of-use issues easier than a main- fluctuations in product supply and demand, stream engineer. However, the mainstream mar- and industry consolidation. ket demands tools that are intuitive and can be If you consider the history of any EDA com- used by any member of the development team pany, you will see multiple acquisitions and from EEs to PCB designers to achieve quick re- mergers over the years. The technology was sults. once an expensive, difficult to use and adminis- The major EDA companies, who once only ter, UNIX-based dinosaur. I recall having to pay sold enterprise-level solutions, now also pro- in the order of $100k per seat, for such systems, vide entry-level and mid-range tools with only to find multiple bugs. I guess the real break- highly productive features at very competitive through was back in 1995 when the Windows prices. It is amazing how much bang you get
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Figure 2: Technology adoption life cycle (source:Crossing the Chasm). for your buck. Today, the PCB design process ger selling cycles, lower product margins, loss of entails much more than just schematic capture market share, and additional working capital re- and PCB layout. With increasing complexity in quirements. If competitors offer significant dis- electronics systems, engineers need to develop counts on certain products, then other vendors with the whole product in mind. Having access may need to lower their prices or offer other fa- to a design tool that encompasses PCB design, vorable terms to compete successfully. coupled with comprehensive simulation and Any broad-based changes in pricing policies analysis, really gives design engineers the con- could cause new license and service revenues to fidence that their products will be delivered on decline or be delayed as the sales force imple- schedule and at the highest performance and ments these changes and the customers adjust reliability. Also, as electronics becomes smaller, to the new pricing policies. Some of the compet- faster and more densely packed, engineers are itors may bundle certain software or hardware compelled to consider virtual prototyping to products with other more desirable products at meet stringent schedules. lower prices or no marginal cost for promotion- Small and medium enterprise (SME) com- al purposes as a long-term pricing strategy, or panies now dominate the EDA market and as engage in predatory pricing. the number of global customers builds, the pric- EDA vendors promote their products and es of the technology drop as it can be spread services through advertising, marketing auto- across the larger user base. Over the years, the mation, trade shows, public relations and the cost of ownership has dropped from ~$100,000 internet. They generally market their products to ~$15,000 per seat with even more advanced and provide services to existing and prospective features. This is no doubt great for the custom- customers through a direct sales force consist- er, but not so for the EDA company and their ing of sales people and applications engineers. global reseller network. From a salesperson’s They also selectively utilize value-added resell- point of view, they now have to put in a similar ers to broaden their reach (especially interna- amount of effort for far less reward. tionally) and reduce cost of sales. Price competition in the EDA industry is in- At the enterprise level, where huge profits tense, which can lead to price reductions, lon- can still be realized, months of sales and engi-
22 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 THERMAL DESIGN ISSUES MARKETING IN THE MATURING EDA INDUSTRY
neering effort can be invested in a sale that may References eventuate in multiple seats globally. The com- 1. Barry Olney’s Beyond Design columns: plexity and expense, associated with EDA prod- Rise of the Independent Engineer, Why Auto- ucts and services, generally require a lengthy routers Don’t Work, and Learning the Curve customer education, evaluation and approval 2. Peggy Aycinena: PCB Tools, Part 1 process and greatly depend on the customers’ 3. Cadence Design Systems 10-K Filings budgetary constraints and budget cycles. These 4. Santiago Solari: How Cadence generates a salespeople use target account selling techniques steady revenue stream to break into the closed circle of influence with- 5. Kirti Sikri Desai: EDA Innovation through in a company to close the sale. However, at the Merger Acquisitions SME level, this amount of effect can no longer 6. Ed Sperling: Buying And Selling EDA be justified. So the lower-level sales are more a Companies numbers game, where profit margins are much tighter. Rather than make sales visits to a pro- spective company, vendors now easily demon- strate online and market via public webinars. Barry Olney is Managing Director While most design is now performed by the of In-Circuit Design Pty Ltd (iCD), SME companies who now dominate the EDA Australia. The company is a PCB market, EDA tools must evolve to satisfy the design service bureau that spe- challenging needs of today’s engineers and PCB cializes in board-level simulation. designers. The latest EDA offerings provide high- iCD developed the iCD Stackup ly productive tools for the ever-increasing num- Planner and iCD PDN Planner soft- ber of global users, at an affordable price point. ware. Visit www.icd.com.au. Really, it has never been better! PCBDESIGN
Graphene Calligraphy Scientists at The University of phene in very small volumes. Manchester and Karlsruhe Insti- In order to achieve such fine tute of Technology have demon- chemical patterns, the re- strated a method to chemically searchers used droplets of modify small regions of gra- chemicals less than 100 attoli- phene with high precision, lead- tres (10-16 L) in volume; that’s ing to extreme miniaturisation of 1/10,000,000,000,000,000th chemical and biological sensors. of a litre. Writing in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Two types of ‘pens’ were used, one which is researchers led by Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan have dipped into the reactive ‘ink’ like a quill to cover shown that it is possible to combine graphene the nib, and the other where the ink is filled into a with chemical and biological molecules and form reservoir and flows through a channel in the nib, patterns, which are 100s of nanometres wide. just like in a fountain pen. An array of such micro- Graphene is the world’s first two-dimensional pens are moved over the graphene surface to de- material. It is strong, transparent, flexible and the liver the chemical droplets which react with the world’s most conductive material. Every atom in graphene. graphene is exposed to its environment, allowing These techniques are key to enabling graphene it to sense changes in its surroundings. sensors which can be used in real-world applica- Using technology that resembles writing with tions; graphene sensors fabricated this way have a quill or fountain pen, the scientists were able the potential to be used in blood tests, minimising to deliver chemical droplets to the surface of gra- the amount of blood a patient is required to give.
24 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
FEATURE COLUMN: SOFTWARE BYTES
How Selling EDA Software Has Changed…or Not
by Abby Monaco INTERCEPT TECHNOLOGY
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. versation. (Who remembers the Bunny ad cam- –William E. Hickson paign?) Alongside advertising in print publications, Hickson, an elementary education reformer, postcard mailers were regularly distributed. In- popularized this proverb in the 1800s, but over dustry trade shows were full of buyers, often a century later, it crisply sums up the art of sales with transactions occurring on the show floor. and selling. There is a constantly expanding list Trade show booths were huge affairs that took of sales methods, theories, and strategies, but days to assemble, with side rooms for negotia- none of them mean a thing unless a salesman tions and contract signing. Potential leads were has the tenacity to keep trying. showered with gifts both during and after the Let’s look at how sales and marketing in the shows. PCB world have evolved over time. Outside of the shows, phone calls were com- mon and pre-sale face to face meetings and dem- Marketing & Advertising os were expected. It was not at all surprising for Prior to the boom in digital and mobile de- a software vendor to receive several telephone vices, print was the overwhelming vehicle for inquiries each day about the software. Inbound getting one’s name out there. Every vendor leads were commonplace, mostly because there competed for ad space. Sales and marketing per- was barely any competition in the EDA mar- sonnel fought over ownership of such ad space, ketplace at the time. Prior to the rise of cheap and large amounts of sales revenue went right hardware and easy-to-use Windows-based user back into funding the designing and displaying interfaces, there weren’t many options for PCB of these ads. Everyone knew that the cover, in- designers, and certainly none that were afford- side cover, and back cover were pure gold as far able. When these engineers and designers saw as getting name recognition and sales leads, and advertisements in trade publications, a lot of the spaces were coveted and closely watched. them were excited to know there was another Good ads and bad ads generated industry con- option out there.
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TWO LOCATIONS - ONE INTEGRATED SOLUTION NEW YORK OPERATION CALIFORNIA OPERATION 585.254.2980 714.898.4901 [email protected] [email protected] www.c3circuits.com HOW SELLING EDA SOFTWARE HAS CHANGED…OR NOT
But with the rise of Google, Internet 2.0, and becoming less and less involved with one an- later, HTML5, marketing and advertising have other as human beings. Each person becomes become a much more complicated affair. The bytes of data to be chased down until they are rise of digital advertising creates a new, more forced to make some kind of contact. But even complicated matter: how to be heard above all this contact point is in the form of more clicks, the noise. The Internet has seen such prolifera- signups to receive demos or white papers, reg- tion of advertising that we are all numb to it, istrations to download free software trials. We annoyed by it, and actively trying to block it have all grown accustomed to avoiding sales from our view. Print and digital advertising are people until we feel prepared for the pitch, as an obligation for generating brand awareness in opposed to going in blind and listening from an industry, but they are no longer viewed as start to finish. By the time we decide to reach a method by which to gain an interested pros- out to a live voice, that live voice most likely pect. They are carefully measured for page im- already knows the questions we’re going to ask, pressions and clicks, and the price of each lead and is prepared with the answers. is separated into “cold” and “warm” leads, mak- The fallout of this ultra-digital experience ing simple print and digital advertising more ex- is that some people are actually returning to pensive as the real leads dwindle into the ether. the old-school methods and simply picking up the phone to chat. Email is becoming tired and cumbersome, whereas online chat or a simple phone call has become quicker and easier than dealing with the world of digital noise. The time The Internet is full of informa- it takes to write an email and receive a response tion that can be researched without is a noticeable drain, and only serves to fracture our already bombarded attention spans. making“ any human contact. Sales and marketing exist to reach custom- ers and bring in sales revenue. But they are now trying to reach each customer on a tailored, customized, and very personal level. While this ” approach is labor-intensive for sales and mar- The reality is that these coveted leads are keting teams, it serves the customers nicely, and human beings who are now able to educate there is proven success with these data-driven themselves about their options long before a methods. One aspect that bears further study is software vendor might know they are inter- figuring out how much a company spends on ested. The Internet is full of information that database management systems, content deliv- can be researched without making any human ery, and salaries of the people who know how contact. In response, advertising and marketing to do this effectively, and how much that eats have entered the big data phase, whereby every into the overall profits when leads do turn into click and every web page visited is tracked. Your sales. Are profits being exhausted just to get that email address can be sent specifically tailored new sale, or is it paying off in the long run? messages about whatever you’ve been click- ing on, in an effort to shorten the lead-to-sales Product Pricing & Bundling cycle. Keywords entered into Google searches In the past (and occasionally now), the are regularly culled and content on websites “single vendor software solution” was the main amended to include those search words. More paradigm in EDA software tools. Companies often than not, Google tops the list of how demanded that all design teams run the same leads ultimately visit a company’s website for software, often causing huge internal fights that information—not those carefully placed digital would end with people resigning their positions ads, blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates. over loyalty to a software vendor. As salesmen and marketers are honing their Big companies would shop around when a skills and tracking these bits of data, we are all contract was up, sending each software vendor
28 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 HOW SELLING EDA SOFTWARE HAS CHANGED…OR NOT
a list of prerequisites and requesting a response to each item, usually by checking off each box. OEMs would demand that software develop- ers give them the “check in the box,” regard- less of how usable the actual solution might be. The bottom line was the sale didn’t go through without all the checks in place, mostly because the people signing over the purchase money had no idea that half those checks might be half-finished software functions. Sometimes the buyers would figure out which checks were real through the demo process, but sometimes not. Of course, the level of integrity of the re- sponses to these lists was particular to each ven- dor. But more often than not, vendors suffered from the lower common denominator’s desire to win sales over providing solid and forward moving solutions for engineers and designers. There were even some vendors in the mix that were built only on checking every box, creat- ing a fissure between the managers making such purchases and the actual designers trying to use software that barely functioned. Whether the selected software solution was appropriate for the actual design group became a difficult issue, and this disconnect remains, even today. Alongside the mainstream use of “the list,” there were a few different methods of product pricing and bundling that made competition Abby Monaco celebrates after running in the stiff among EDA vendors. Software vendors 2016 New Orleans Rock and Roll Marathon. with a lot of development resources went with a method routinely referred to as “the whole kitchen sink,” whereby users were handed soft- tions sneaked into the market. These solutions ware with so many options that they often competed well because they had fresher user couldn’t figure out how to get the job done. interfaces using newer coding methods, so they This “kitchen sink” approach was a way to jus- appealed simply by the way they looked and tify the high prices of the software and entice felt to the user. These solutions didn’t focus on managers to sign a deal even though a good offering “the whole kitchen sink.” Rather, they 85% of what they were purchasing was either got the job done in an easier-to-use application unusable or not needed. Software vendors and package. With the entry of lower level solutions, developers became so caught up in the num- the market place suddenly had to get smarter ber of extras they could throw into the sale that about pricing and bundling to win sales. they lost sight of their real objective: improving As the industry scrambled to create this or the mainstream user flow so that the design job that package deal, or tiered pricing bundle to could be done more smoothly. appeal to whatever end of the market a designer This approach worked fairly well when the might fall into, a major change ensued that is market was able to support high prices for EDA worthy of note: The value of the intellectual prop- software. But as heads were turned trying to erty and development work that was put into the offer this or that extra option to be more ap- product was no longer the driving force of the price pealing than the competition, lower-cost solu- set for the product.
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 29 HOW SELLING EDA SOFTWARE HAS CHANGED…OR NOT
The high prices that the industry enjoyed $25,000 for a seat of software for that PCB de- in its early days began to fall, causing much signer to produce a design in half the time, with concern among software vendors because the fewer headaches and a greater likelihood of zero profit margin per sale was slipping. In our re- design defects, the money spent up front often placement market, this is very concerning, be- pays for itself many times over. cause the only way to make up for this profit is This fact is often lost on engineering man- to bring in a large amount of new sales at this agers because of that age-old problem: There is lower price. Volume sales suddenly became the a disconnect between what designers want and rule, in a market that isn’t exactly growing in what their managers give them. leaps and bounds. Where Are We Now? The New Normal It’s a difficult market out there for EDA soft- So here we are now. We are suffering from an ware vendors. It’s glutted with some great play- ever-widening gap between the high-end design ers. This means that it’s a great time for PCB software used to push the envelope of the EDA designers and engineers. Picking and choos- industry, and the lower-to-middle end-market of ing among EDA software vendors to find just designers who are trying to keep up with market the right mix is creating a shift away from the demands for electronic products. EDA software single vendor solution that was so important companies are trying to diversify their offerings not too long ago. If one designer can cut design to make up for lost profits, and the nature of the time in half or more by using a software appli- business has become much more complex. cation that he knows inside and out, managers today seem more willing to allow him to use that application instead of the tool that compa- ny standard dictate. This means good things for EDA software companies are software vendors too, because one vendor’s win doesn’t necessarily mean that another vendor is trying to diversify their offerings entirely shut out from use by that design group. to make up for lost profits, and the These trends and changes are certainly impor- “ tant, but it can also be argued that not a whole lot nature of the business has become has changed. The bottom line is that PCB design- much more complex. ers want their lives to be easier when it comes to laying out a board. An entire industry of software developers is working as hard as they can to pro- vide easier, faster ways to do just that. It won’t be a The complexity lies here:” All the software surprise if new competitor joins the marketplace, vendors’ design tools can take a board design or if some older competitor dies a slow death. from conception to manufacture. But each ven- From our perspective looking back over dor provides its own set of unique strengths or time, we can understand that this is really just weaknesses that make it either perfect for one another part of the cycle of selling and market- company’s flavor of designs, or not so perfect. ing EDA tools. PCBDESIGN There is also the question of time-to-market ver- sus cost of time-to-market. Engineering managers often overlook one aspect of cost: They try to save money with a Abby Monaco, CID, is a product $10,000 seat of design software, but they often manager for Intercept Technology wind up paying a designer four times that in Inc. With more than 13 years of man-hours spent using software that lacks func- experience in EDA, Abby is actively tionality. After paying the designer for his time, involved in technical product plan- you still wonder if this budget software caught ning and direction, and marketing. all of the manufacturing defects. But if you pay
30 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
FEATURE INTERVIEW SALES AND MARKETING WITH
DownStream Rick Almeida by Andy Shaughnessy Almeida: The main philosophy, whether deal- ing direct with DownStream or through one of From its inception, DownStream Technolo- our resellers, is to understand the customers’ gies has been a new kind of software tool compa- problems first. Not just the technical issues, but ny. DownStream’s post-processing tools address the organizational, and financial structures so one of the most unpopular parts of the design that we can help our customers configure the process: documentation. I asked DownStream right solution that meets all of their needs. founder and CEO Rick Almeida to discuss some of his firm’s marketing and sales methods, the Shaughnessy: Do you use direct salespeople or trends that he sees, and the influence of the In- reps, or both? What are the pros and cons of reps ternet on marketing. vs. salespeople?
Andy Shaughnessy: For anyone who may not be Almeida: We use mostly inside telesales in familiar with DownStream, give us a quick back- North America. There are also some key ac- ground on the company and your software tools. counts that are managed by a direct sales ap- proach. Everywhere else we use value-added re- Rick Almeida: DownStream originated through sellers who have exclusive regional territories. our acquisition of CAM350 from Innoveda, This allows them to invest in our products and now a part of Mentor Graphics. The founders marketing as they reap the direct benefits from of DownStream were previously the executive those activities. Using resellers is very economi- staff of PADS Software and were responsible cal, as you only incur a cost for sales when a for much of PADS current PCB technology sale is made. However, you must have very prior to the sale of PADS to Mentor Graphics. good partnerships with your resellers because DownStream markets and sells its products in you are one step removed from the customer 45 countries through a combination of resellers base. We’ve had very long and close relation- and direct sales. ships with our resellers. Many of them we’ve worked with since our days at PADS Software. Shaughnessy: What is your philosophy regarding It’s important when dealing with resellers that sales? you understand their business motivations as
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step to their process. How do you make your case to designers?
Almeida: DownStream provides CAM verifica- tion and documentation solutions. Neither step is a new, additional step per se. It’s really the use of automation to drive that step. Designers use our products for CAM file ver- ification. From easy netlist comparison to more specific DFM detection. This has always been part of the PCB post processes but was largely a manual effort using human optics to detect issues before going to manufacturing. It’s only natural that with more complex PCB topologies that optics would need to be replaced with au- tomation. And now with shrinking product life- cycles, ensuring manufacturability on the first pass is becoming very import for companies to realize a return on investment in shorter time frames. Almost every design requires some level of documentation to fabricate and/or assemble the well as your own. We’ve seen countless times PCB. These are the instructions and specifica- where companies try to hire resellers and strong tion for fit and finish of the product as intended arm them to sell certain products that are not by engineering. When documentation is vague really a fit with the resellers business model. In or unavailable from engineering, it typically the end, both the reseller and the OEM lose out. has to be documented further downstream in Having direct sales, whether telesales or field manufacturing. To ensure that product quality direct, saves you the margin you would normal- assurance is maintained both for the incoming ly pay to a reseller and gets you closer to the bare PCB and other outsourced components, as customer. However, managing a hybrid chan- well as the outgoing finished product. nel typically requires focused channel manage- In both cases the customer must realize a ment to avoid conflict between your direct and certain amount of pain in executing these tasks reseller channels. to realistically justify purchasing software to solve those problems. Shaughnessy: How do you identify potential cus- tomers? And what is a typical timeframe for mak- Shaughnessy: How would you describe Down- ing a sale? Stream’s marketing philosophy?
Almeida: Our customer acquisition is largely Almeida: Because our products are sold to done through outbound marketing activities. mainstream market, it typically means that DownStream in particular has the benefit of the problems are well known and the solutions having a product with very strong brand recog- are proven. This allows us to avoid having to nition which helps pull customers in. For our be evangelicals for our products. Instead, our products and price points, sales cycles can range philosophy is two-fold based on product and from 1–3 days to 1–6 months. communication marketing. We typically try to make buying our products as easy as possible. Shaughnessy: DownStream is kind of a different Which means that our policies and configura- animal, because you don’t have any direct compet- tions must be easily understood by the custom- itors. Still, you’re asking designers to add another er so that when working with our sales chan-
34 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 SALES AND MARKETING WITH DOWNSTREAM
nels the right solutions is quickly identified by in many places as possible has remained, we’ve both parties. From the communication/brand- adjusted our budgeting to invest more in new ing standpoint, we use an approach that puts marketing channels and decrease investment in us in as many places as possible to create aware- some of the more obsolete channels. ness and drive customers to our sales channels. We also have programs in place to encourage Shaughnessy: What would you like to do to im- our resellers to also invest in marketing Down- prove your sales and marketing processes? Stream products in their respective territories. Almeida: I think the biggest area of improve- Shaughnessy: We’ve all seen how marketing has ment is to follow the growing self-service mar- changed in the last 10 years or so. There are so keting trend. This is a big challenge as customers many new ways to market your tools now, with are more removed from your sales force, which social media leading the way. What works best for makes understanding their problems more dif- DownStream? ficult. So you have to really focus more on en- suring that your message and your product so- Almeida: We still subscribe to the same philoso- lutions are really understood by the customer phy of brand awareness as mentioned above. without external support. But in the end, this is From our standpoint, Internet marketing has the direction of not just the EDA industry, but created more of a change to marketing dynam- across many industries and markets. There is an ics than just social media. It’s interesting be- old saying that when dealing with change you cause the internet and its emerging technolo- must either adapt, migrate, or die. We’re still gies have made it very easy for customers to young and have a lot to offer! find what they are looking for. We are seeing a shift to more of a “self-serve” dynamic. For in- Shaughnessy: Thanks, Rick. I appreciate your time. stance, we see a growing participation in online webinars while a simultaneous drop in physi- Almeida: Thanks, Andy. PCBDESIGN cal seminars. So while our philosophy of being
Paper-Based Skin Patch Monitors Dehydration Researchers have developed a which are laminated with a wa- low-cost skin patch that changes ter-impermeable film to form color to indicate different levels of microchannels. The channels are hydration, representing a poten- loaded with a water-activated dye tial new medical technology. at one end. As sweat secretion in- Such an innovation might be creases, the strips are activated used by marathon runners, mili- sequentially, changing from blue tary personnel and others to help to red and providing easily identi- prevent dehydration. fiable levels of moisture loss. “Hydration in humans is a delicate parameter,” “We have talked to many experts including mara- said Babak Ziaie, a professor of biomedical engi- thon directors, the Ironman World Championship, neering and electrical and computer engineering Olympic triathlon athletes and many collegiate and at Purdue University. “Even small deviations such as professional coaches, athletes, race directors and 2 percent from normal levels can affect a person’s EMTs to validate the need for this kind of product,” cognitive and physical performance by more than said graduate student Vaibhav Jain. 30 percent.” The patch was tested at a sweating rate of 90 mi- The palm-size patch consists of filter paper that croliters per hour over a square centimeter of skin, is laser-machined to create a radial array of strips, which corresponds to normal human sweat rates.
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 35 FEATURE INTERVIEW FLEX AND RIGID SALES AND MARKETING WITH Al Wasserzug Al Wasserzug by Andy Shaughnessy Midwest and Southeast U.S. where I have an op- portunity to utilize most of the skill set I have After decades in the PCB industry, Al Was- developed over my career. While I continue to serzug of Cirexx International has seen mar- specialize in flex circuits, I have also enjoyed keting and sales trends come and go. I recent- learning and participating in the growing RF/ ly caught up with Al and interviewed him via microwave PCB niche. email about the latest sales and marketing tech- niques, the value of traditional methods such as Shaughnessy: How would you describe the Cirexx trade shows and conferences, and the particular marketing philosophy? characteristics of marketing flex circuits. Wasserzug: The Cirexx marketing approach can Andy Shaughnessy: For anyone who may not be be wrapped up in one word: focus. We focus on familiar with Cirexx, give us a quick background a particular market segment, technology, region on the company and your own background. and/or customer account and then saturate that entity with all things Cirexx. We use all avail- Al Wasserzug: Cirexx was established in 1984 able tools: The Internet, trade shows, “lunch-n- in Silicon Valley as a PCB manufacturer and learn” events, sales reps, cold calling, technical has grown over the years to become a full ser- interface/assistance and a lot of face time with vice PWB supplier. The company offers design key individuals. through assembly of printed circuit board and flex circuit products for a variety of markets and Shaughnessy: Do you think trade shows, confer- holds several professional certifications and reg- ences and advertising are still important marketing istrations. avenues? I hear this argument, pro and con, quite I have been in the PWB industry for more a bit. than 38 years and have served in nearly every facet of a manufacturing organization. With Wasserzug: These are all tools that continue to Cirexx, I manage business development in the have great value within the context of a larger
36 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
FLEX AND RIGID SALES AND MARKETING WITH AL WASSERZUG
marketing plan. They will individually seem like ers will “like” and “follow” the same company’s a waste of time and money if they are not incor- Facebook page. The internet in general has be- porated into a dedicated strategy from which come an extremely valuable tool for the field the entire sales team is working. You can add salesperson. It instantly provides a ton of infor- all forms of other common sales instruments to mation that previously would have taken years this list and similarly get pro and con on each to amass. Social media and use of the internet, for the same reason: use of social media; sales including email, are all tools that can help the reps vs. direct sales; value of “lunch-n-learns,” marketer to be more efficient. However, there is etc. Every organization must have an overall no replacement for incredible value of face-to- plan to achieve a specific objective. Then, and face contact. only then, will they readily see the wisdom—or lack thereof—in any one particular approach. Shaughnessy: What marketing trends do you see The value of trade show exhibition is some- overall in the PCB industry? thing that I hear often argued amongst col- leagues. The larger shows have become a costly Wasserzug: In my 38 years in the business, I endeavor with questionable concrete results have witnesses first-hand the dramatic changes (actual leads). However, consistent exhibition that have occurred during in our industry. From at a large trade show is an excellent means of 3,000+ shops in the late ‘70s to roughly 260 PCB building and maintaining a brand within a mar- manufacturing locations today in North Amer- ket segment. You may not be seeing actual leads ica, the process of earning revenue making cir- from the show, but when your salespeople walk cuit boards is completely different. Also, the rise into accounts that typically attend that show of the large public company has created a vast the company name will be recognized—and divide between them and the traditional small, that is very valuable in developing and short- privately-held, family operations. The two do ening the sales cycle. For specific and territorial almost everything differently to survive, much lead-generation regional trade shows can be a less grow. With the larger, public companies it is very good value. all about branding and volume, developing an Conferences are still one of the best ways image and participating in large chunks of busi- to learn about technology trends and to meet ness. For the smaller shops success lies in spe- the people driving them. There continues to cialization and flexibility—developing compe- be some reluctance amongst PWB manufactur- tencies in niche markets and serving those mar- ers to “give away the secrets” of their process- kets with the best customer service available. ing ingenuity, but mostly amongst companies From a macro perspective, I see a continua- who do not network well or often and are most tion of these trends going forward, along with likely operating in a bubble. White paper pre- more consolidation to correct for the contin- sentations at industry conferences continue to ued over capacity in the North America PWB be one of the best methods of identifying those industry. There is also an overcapacity situation who could most benefit from the presented in Asia that may be interesting to watch play technology. out. The Chinese PWB industry is at a point not unlike North America in the early 1980s. The Shaughnessy: We’ve all seen how marketing tac- shake-out will affect the industry globally. tics have changed in the last 10 years or so. Do On a more granular level I see a continua- you all use social media or any of the newer media tion of technology developments in flex circuits formats? concentrating on high-speed signal integrity and HDI features. These developments will in- Wasserzug: We do use social media at Cirexx, volve materials, like DuPont’s HT, and process and we often discuss how we can use it more. techniques, like resin via fill. It is a challenge for a PWB manufacturing com- pany to develop a relevant following on Twitter. Shaughnessy: Is there anything else you’d like to However, you would be surprised how many us- add?
38 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 FLEX AND RIGID SALES AND MARKETING WITH AL WASSERZUG
Wasserzug: Flex circuits as a commercial prod- structure. The product will move even more uct, in my view, are exiting their adolescence towards a “commodity sale” than a “technical and entering adulthood. This is evidenced by sale.” Price erosion will continue due to mostly the broad acceptance and recognition of flex to overcapacity, including pressure from over- circuits and the amount of support products, seas, and lack of supplier differentiation. And consumables and equipment available, specifi- finally, adulthood will bring more consolida- cally for their manufacture. When I first worked tion amongst flex circuit companies, especially with flex circuits in the early 1980s at Hughes those who offer only flex circuit products. Aircraft Company, the marketer needed to of- ten explain what the product was and why one Shaughnessy: Thank you, Al. would want to use it. Today, nearly everyone knows what a flex circuit is and the benefits it Wasserzug: Thanks, Andy. PCBDESIGN brings. With flex circuit adulthood comes a mat- uration of the economics and the industry
Screening of Databases is the Basis for Developing New Energy Materials The growing volume of S. Thygesen found that an computer-generated data interesting development is and calculations makes it taking place. possible to quickly develop “At DTU Physics, we new energy materials. A re- have created our own da- cently published screening tabases with computer- focuses on materials with a based calculations, and we light-absorbing effect. participate in the big inter- Two researchers from national NoMaD database. The Villum Center for the Both of these activities are Science of Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals at DTU based on DFT, Density Functional Theory, which Physics were recently asked to write a perspective provides information on the properties of a mate- for the journal Science. Researchers do not receive rial by calculating its electronic structure. The chal- such requests or such recognition every day. This lenge has been the use of common standards, so was the result of their work on the calculation of that all researchers work in identical file formats atomic structures and the structure of materials. and can therefore incorporate and build on others’ “The findings of innumerable laboratory ex- results. This is where there is currently an exciting periments have been published and compiled in move towards a level of conformity that is opening databases in recent decades, and thousands of up new opportunities,” Jacobsen continues. computer-based calculations have been run using The two researchers’ work at the Villum Center this data. The available knowledge is vast, and our for the Science of Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals perspective suggests that, despite the great chal- involves developing better materials for light ab- lenges presented by the large volumes of data— sorption for use in photoelectrochemistry—and which are not directly comparable and compat- ultimately fuels. Alternatives to oil for aviation, for ible—some very promising opportunities do also example, are one of the two major challenges in present themselves,” explains Professor Karsten W. connection with phasing out fossil fuels on which Jacobsen. the Center is working, and the development of bet- In their research, Jacobsen and Professor Kristian ter catalytic converters is also part of the solution.
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 39 FEATURE INTERVIEW
Altium’s Sales Plan: Deal Directly with Designers by Andy Shaughnessy company; does that attitude guide your sales pro- cess? Altium has been shaking up the EDA world for quite some time. The Australian company Romine: Simple. Altium has always had a focus once slashed the cost of Altium Designer by on the user as opposed to “the people in the 75% to grow market share, and who could for- corner offices,” and this has really added an ex- get their famous (or infamous) “Bunny” ad cam- tra gear to Altium’s growth as we exited the ear- paign? In this email interview with Lawrence ly 2000s. Whereas the focus in the 90s and early Romine, Altium’s global head of field sales, he part of the 2000s was primarily cost and highly shares his views on sales and marketing in the regulated design processes, now the focus is on EDA world, as well as Altium’s philosophy on having an agile design process in which the tool selling EDA tools. selection process was returned to the users. The combination of Altium’s focus on empowering Andy Shaughnessy: For anyone who may not be its users and our sales and marketing approach familiar with Altium, give us a quick background has served us very well in this new environ- on the company and your software tools. ment.
Lawrence Romine: Altium has a rich history, Shaughnessy: Do you use direct salespeople or starting out in 1985 as one of the first providers reps, or both? What are the advantages and chal- of PCB design tools and over time developing lenges for working with each? into one of the market leaders. Our growth over the past 5 years has exponentially exceeded the Romine: We have predominately direct sales, CAGR of the industry. We are the fastest grow- with a handful of exceptions. Now that the us- ing EDA company at present. ers have the buying and decision power, and access to limitless information directly related Shaughnessy: What is your philosophy regarding to the use of the product, the resale channel be- sales? Altium is known for being the “rebel” EDA comes challenging. In this environment where
40 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
ALTIUM’S SALES PLAN: DEAL DIRECTLY WITH DESIGNERS
a reseller is not exclusively grown dramatically as every- covering just our products, thing needs to be developed often the customer is more fast and our products really knowledgeable than the sell- empower the users to make ers. Moreover, the pace at the most of the creative pro- which our products are devel- cess. Whereas the older enter- oped further challenges the prise solutions of the ‘90s and reseller model and creates “in- early 2000s are typically puni- formation asymmetry.” tive to the creative process.
Shaughnessy: How do you iden- Shaughnessy: How would you tify potential customers? And describe Altium’s marketing phi- what is a typical time frame for losophy? making a sale? Lawrence Romine Romine: We do business with Romine: Because our PCB the USERS in our market. design products cover all facets of the market (from “makers” to agile enterprises), we are now Shaughnessy: We’ve all seen how marketing has literally applicable to any company that designs changed in the last 10 years or so. There are so PCBs. Our typical sales cycle is measure in days many new ways to market your tools now, with to weeks. social media leading the way. What avenues work best for Altium? Shaughnessy: For the big EDA companies, mak- ing a sale usually means converting someone from Romine: All of them, and we have a line in all a rival’s EDA tool. But I know designers who use the ponds, literally. And each offers some level Altium as well as another design tool. How do you of ROI. Our core focus is now optimizing each, make your case to that sort of potential customer? but more importantly linking the marketing ex- perience with the sales experience in this age of Romine: This is not unusual, no. Historically, information. when we saw this, our users in these companies would say, “We keep Altium around for when Shaughnessy: Thank you, Lawrence. we want to do something fast.” As the industry has pivoted to agile processes, our footprint has Romine: Thanks, Andy. PCBDESIGN
Novel Microsupercapacitor Exploits Three-Dimensional Porous Electrodes A research team from King Abdullah University of tors are a faster alternative, and these may prove Science & Technology (KAUST) has now developed a suitable for applications requiring power pulsing and microsupercapacitor that exploits three-dimensional very long cycle life. porous electrodes. The team has now developed integrated microsu- These micropower units are expected to enable percapacitors with vertically-scaled three-dimension- a new generation of “smart” products. However, for al porous current collectors made from nickel foams these units to be tiny yet still efficient, the highest to improve microsupercapacitor performance. The energy density must go into the smallest area. pores in the foam work to increase the surface area. One approach to carrying this out is to construct This is superior to state-of-the-art microsuperca- microbatteries using films with a thickness of just a pacitors, which achieve between one and forty mi- few micrometers or less and to replace traditional crowatt-hours per square centimeter, and is compa- electrolytes with solid-state ones. Microsupercapaci- rable to various types of thin film batteries.
42 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
FEATURE
What Customers Crave: How to Create Relevant Five New Books and Memorable Experiences at Every Touchpoint Author: Nicholas Webb that Will Change Amacom, 2017 Price $25.00 Your Perspective on Customer service is out and customer expe- rience is in. It’s not enough to deliver great cus- tomer service any more—you must instead de- liver an entire customer experience and a great experience at that. Customers want to feel good about the very act of working with you. They SALES AND want to feel that you are on their side and that you have their best interests at heart. This book goes beyond traditional thoughts about service. In the first part of the book, the author discusses something we have all become MARKETING aware of and that is creating customer value. He points out that it is much more effective to keep a customer happy than it is to get a new cus- tomer. From the book: “…probability of selling to a new prospect is 5 to 20 percent, while the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70 percent.” Mr. Webb goes on to explain just how we can provide value to our customers. He de- by Dan Beaulieu scribes in detail how to create customer confi- dence in you, your company and your products In honor of this month’s topic of sales and and services. marketing, I’m providing a review of five books This is one of those books that inspires great that can directly influence the way we think thoughts and ideas by giving the reader “trig- about sales, marketing, customers and customer gers” that encourages thinking about customers service. in a way you have not done before. He shows When selecting these books, I considered you how to put yourself in their place and grow the following criteria: your understanding of how they view you and your company, and most importantly, what • I wanted the books to be relatively new— they expect from you. no older than 24 months I especially like the section entitled, “Make • I wanted them to represent a new way an upset customer a lifelong customer in five of thinking easy steps.” From the book: • I wanted books with innovative ideas • I wanted books that could make a sales 1. Affirm: Create a complete under- and marketing person better standing of the problem and what it means to the customer. 2. Listen: Yes, shut up and listen and hear ______4 exactly what the customer is saying to you.
44 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 Engineering And Providing Balanced Interconnect Solutions MIRACO
Miraco, Inc. • Manchester, NH • miracoinc.com • 603-665-9449 ...connecting technology FIVE NEW BOOKS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON SALES AND MARKETING
3. Confirm: Repeat back to the customer uses real-life examples to set the stage for each what the problem is so that he step—each simple step, as he says. By using understands that you understand… those specific examples (names changed to pro- that you get it. tect everyone, by the way) he then shows that 4. Fix: You know what the problem is, by using the techniques laid out in the book now fix it. you can, as he says, “repair communication 5. Follow up: Yes, follow up to make sure breakdowns.” that the problem is solved and the The key to what Ebenstein is writing about customer is completely satisfied. is flexibility to get in the other person’s head, walk in their shoes, if you will, and see things I would add one of my own and that is to do from their point of view…but without giving up all of this as quickly as possible so that the situ- on your own. Not an easy task that. This is why ation is alleviated in the blink of an eye. Doing we need techniques laid out here so that we can this will in fact make the customer respect you hold two points of view at the same time, thus for life. allowing us the ability to work with the other There is much too much in this book to cover party, come together, and develop a consensus it all. There is valuable information, from learn- that both sides can not only just live with but ing everything you can about your customers to be able to love with. getting referrals and recommendations. Like every elegant solution, this all sounds This is a must have for anyone who is seri- very easy, but it is only by following Ebenstein’s ous about customer service and retention…and expert advice that we can even hope to get to who isn’t? the point where we can do this on our own while leaving our emotions at the door. Whether you are a teacher dealing with an ______4______administrator, an attorney trying to mediate a divorce, or a salesperson trying to make that sale with a difficult customer, this one is for I Hear You: Repair you. Don’t live another day without it. Communication Breakdowns, Negotiate ______4______Successfully, and Build Consensus…In Three Simple Steps Career Courage: Discover Author: Donny Ebenstein Your Passion, Step out Amacom, 2013 of Your Comfort Zone, Price $24.95 and Create the Success You Want. If your life is conflict free you don’t need Author: Katie C. Kelley this book, but then again who are you kidding? Amacom, 2016 This is the kind of book that you just don’t Price $16.95 expect to see on a business bookshelf. In fact, you probably would not go looking for this This is a great book for all ages but particu- book in the first place. After all, who thinks larly for those starting a career. If you have a they need a book about resolving conflicts? son or daughter carving out a career path, this It turns out we all do, whether it’s commu- book is chock full of the right kind of advice for nicating with our boss, a co-worker, a customer them. Or if you’re a person who started down or a neighbor; we all need the skills that Donny one path, but are finding that it is just not you, Ebenstein writes about in this book. this is a great book for you. If you’re middle- My favorite part of this book, besides the aged and are looking to re-invent yourself, tools he teaches of course, was the fact that he you’ll find this book especially helpful.
46 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 FIVE NEW BOOKS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON SALES AND MARKETING
Writing with the insight of someone who provoking subjects for my columns, and I feel has been there, Ms. Kelley offers a virtual hand- that with this book I have found a virtual gold book for finding yourself and what you want to mine. Truth be known, I have already based do with your life. Not only will this book show three weekly versions of Its Only Common Sense, you the way to get started it will also show you my weekly PCB007.com column, on subjects the way to accelerate your journey once you are that I found in this book. The first was based on on the right path. Hunter’s myths about prospecting; the second I especially appreciate the examples of real one was on working with the right prospects. people that the author includes. Each chapter, I have also recommended that two of my on topics ranging from motivation and confi- clients buy copies of this book for their sales dence to vision and harmony, expressively de- teams. fines each step of the way, highlighting it with From why to prospect, to how to prospect, true life examples. to choosing the right prospects and making sure The book is filled with helpful, delectable they are the right ones, this book has every- little sections designed to allow the reader to thing a salesperson novice or old timer needs to participate in activities that drive the point be successful. of that chapter home. The book includes sec- I especially like the way the author deals tions like: “Coach’s Challenge,” which helps with the difficult subjects of getting appoint- the reader to think things through by applying ments and what to do at those appointments the challenges to his own situation; and “Game to dealing with voice mail and how to leave an Time,” where the author wraps up each chap- effective voicemail message. ter with summaries of what we have learned This book does more than give the reader in that chapter and applying them to our own the basic rules of successful prospecting. It also situations. motivates the reader into taking action, getting This is one of those books that you don’t re- down to work, and getting it done. High Profit alize you need until you open it. This book stim- Prospecting is the have-to-have book for your ulates your mind and makes you think about sales library. I urge you to get it today and oh things you should be thinking about, from your yes, make sure you have a highlighter nearby career to your life. People of all ages can benefit when you start reading it—you’ll need it! greatly from reading Career Courage. ______4______4______Fail Fast or Win Big: High Profit Prospecting: The Start-up Plan Powerful Strategies to for Starting Now Find the Best Leads and Author: Bernhard Schroeder Drive Breakthrough Amacon, 2015 Sales Results Price $21.95 Author: Mark Hunter Amacom, 2016 Price $18.95 Stop aiming and start firing! Every so often you find a book that ends up Man, this is a great book. This is by far the being more of a stimulant for ideas than just a best book on prospecting and lead generation I book. This is one of those books. I want to call it have ever read or, I should say, used. As a sales the “Nike—just do it” book because that’s exact- columnist and consultant, I am always on the ly what the message is. He claims for example lookout for books that are not only going to that business plans are a thing of the past, that give me ideas to help me help my clients but they take too long to do and that they are not also books that will give me some thought- as effective as well as just doing it.
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 47
A great big thank you to all our 2016 Geek-a-Palooza sponsors! You are the wind beneath our wings, and we couldn’t do it without you!
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The business model, a short business model be perfect but that it will be good enough to with the good and the bad and the ugly of just exemplify what the product or service should trying something is the way to go. look like, enough to get someone interest in the Schroeder gives numerous examples of en- product and thus the company. trepreneurs who gave it a go before most people From the book: would have thought their new product or ser- vice was truly ready for prime time. Lessons learned: So many times, people have a great idea • Believe in your product, not foolishly, but they wait too long to execute that idea, but with common sense and instead they spend their time writing long • Find ways to get things done business plans to please those bankers who are • Follow the trend never going to give them the funds to start the • Look at alternate sources of distribution business anyway. Schroeder tells us to just get if traditional sources don’t work going. He says that all we need is a great story, a • Seek out other people or companies who story that will explain exactly what we are try- have the same beliefs and look for either ing to sell and how it will work. leverage or distribution opportunities He says that instead of a full-blown business plan, all we need is what he calls “the Lean Mod- Schroeder ends Chapter five with this quote: el Framework,” consisting of the following slides: You really don’t know if you have a company • Company Purpose until you have created a product or service proto- • Problem and Solution type and have sold it in the marketplace. That is, • Why now? you can’t improve a product unless you get customer • Market Size feedback. And you need to move faster than poten- • Competition tial competitors. So create a prototype sooner rather • Product than later. • Business Model • Revenue Model If you are passionate about your career, then • Team and Financials you will eat and breathe and drink sales. This also means that you will read every good busi- And that is all you need to launch your new ness book you can get your hands on. You might business. start with these five that I just recommended. He wants us to develop a model as soon as Good reading, and good learning, means good possible with the understanding that it will not selling. PCBDESIGN
LED Solution: An Opportunity to Stand out Through Design & Additional Functionalities
LED technology is no longer exclusive to the light- novative product planning, design and qualification. ing industry. Changes due to innovative LED technol- PISEO’s strategy evaluates market needs to develop ogy have probably been the most impressive in the comprehensive disruptive solutions that use LED automotive sector. For this reason, recent the use of technology. LEDs has evolved from being a basic, functional fea- “Today, LED technology is no longer just an ture to a distinctive feature with high-value potential. alternative solution,” comments Joel Thome, Director LED technology has given manufacturers the op- at PISEO. “At PISEO, we are completely re-thinking portunity to stand out through lighting design and the system to develop an end solution that uses all additional functionalities. The innovative platform the benefits of LED technology.” PISEO will reveal its PISEO offers a unique global approach, including activities and detail the added value of its services at technology scouting, strategic market analysis, in- its press conference at FORUM LED 2016.
50 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
PCB007 Highlights
EPTE Newsletter: Printable Electronics— Weiner’s World A Practical Solution? This year’s TPCA (Taiwan Printed Circuits Associa- I attended a printable electronics workshop in Ja- tion) show held October 26–28 seemed to have pan a couple of weeks ago. The 200-person crowd lighter attendance than last year. Robots were on was made up of people from R&D organizations, display everywhere, with lot of loaders and unload- material suppliers and machine manufacturers. No ers as well as the multi-axis, multipurpose types. one there could be termed a customer; everyone was there to learn and discuss the latest printable Walt Custer’s Global Market Outlook electronics. With 2016 winding down, Walt Custer shared his end-of-the-year market research data with me at Standard of Excellence: Let’s Get Flexible the recent electronica trade show in Munich, Ger- Although flex and rigid-flex technology has been many. In our interview, Walt breaks down his find- around for many years, it is only in recent years ings and offers insight into the changing trends as that it has come into its own. The reason for the we head into 2017. increased requirements for the flex and rigid-flex technology is simple: Devices are getting smaller. IPC Standards Committee Reports— Printed Board Design, Testing, Schoeller Electronics Presenting a New FlexCircuits, High-Speed/High-Frequency, Organizational Structure in North America Rigid Printed Boards At the recent SMTA International show in Rose- These standards committee reports from IPC’s mont, Illinois, I met Padraig McCabe at Schoeller 2016 Fall Committee Meetings have been com- Electronics Systems’ booth. It was obvious that piled to help keep you up to date on IPC standards they had a lot going on so it was good to be able committee activities. This is the first in a series of to sit down and get the full story of their new orga- reports. nizational structure, name change and the recent acquisitions of PCB companies. All About Flex: Specifying a Flexible Circuit Streamline Circuits: The Importance of IPC has created a specification document, IPC 6013, Being a Sales-Driven Organization which is referenced for many flex circuit applica- I recently had the pleasure of catching up with tions. This commercial document, in combination Tom Doslak, senior VP of sales and marketing for with the CAD data and print, is used as the product Streamline Circuits. We discussed how the com- specification. Most flexible circuitry fabricators’ in- pany got started, technologies that seem to be ternal quality standards are based on IPC 6013. driving the marketplace, critical equipment for to- day’s PCB fabricator, and how being a customer- Lenthor Engineering Adds Salina centered, sales-driven organization serves as the Galindo-Luna to their Executive Team key to their success. California based designer, manufacturer and as- sembler of rigid-flex and flex printed circuit electronica 2016 Impressions boards, Lenthor Engineering, announces the addi- Germany’s third-largest city, and capital of the tion of the newest member of their executive staff, southeastern state of Bavaria, Munich was once Salina Galindo-Luna. In her new position, Salina more the host to electronica, which can justifiably will help Lenthor improve their services by stream- claim to be the world’s leading trade fair for elec- lining production processes and eliminating waste tronic components, systems and applications. to promote sustainable change.
52 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
LIGHTNING SPEED LAMINATES
PCB-Based Antennas and PIM Concerns
by John Coonrod ROGERS CORPORATION A large variety of PCB-based antenna struc- frequency will translate to a shorter wavelength tures are used at microwave frequencies, and and a smaller patch. Also, using a circuit ma- some are used at higher frequencies. A common terial with a higher Dk will also decrease the PCB antenna structure is a microstrip patch wavelength and make a smaller patch. As a antenna. A microstrip structure is a two-layer general statement, the circuit materials used for copper circuit with a signal plane and a ground PCB-based antenna applications typically have plane, but it is more common for this type of a lower Dk and commonly have a Dk value in circuit to be the outer layers of a multilayer the range of 3-4. circuit. Additionally, circuit materials with higher The size of the copper feature or patch, for Dk will cause the electric fields to concentrate a microstrip patch antenna, has to do with a more between the signal plane and the ground fraction of a wavelength, usually ½ wavelength. plane of the circuit. The field concentration will The patch will radiate (transmit) or will be very reduce radiated energy and accordingly, PCBs sensitive to receive energy at a specific frequen- with antenna radiating elements will often use cy, which is related to the ½ wavelength circuit a material with a relatively low Dk value. An- feature size. Wavelength is associated with fre- other common attribute for antenna designs quency as well as the dielectric constant (Dk) of using PCB technology is the use of thicker lami- the circuit material. Just for reference, a higher nates. A thicker microstrip circuit will radiate
54 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
PCB-BASED ANTENNAS AND PIM CONCERNS
energy better and it is common for microstrip cally, one tone (or frequency) can blend with patch antenna designs to use thicker material another tone to create a new tone. The newly (30 mils or thicker). created tone can be at a frequency which could As with most engineering issues, there are interfere with the receiver of one of the antenna tradeoffs. The combination of a thicker circuit systems. PIM is typically problematic for PCB material with a low Dk is good for antenna ra- antennas used in base station antennas for cel- diation but may not be good for the feedline lular phone technology. The level of PIM which properties. The feedline is typically a 50-ohm can cause a problem in these technologies is transmission line which brings energy to and an incredibly low energy. The acceptable level from the radiating elements of the antenna cir- of PIM is debatable; however, it is mostly due cuit. A microstrip transmission line using a thick to the sensitivity of the system and currently a material can be limited by RF performance due PIM level of -150 dBc is considered good. A larg- to natural resonances that can occur between er negative number is even better, where -160 the signal plane and the ground plane or across dBc is considered very good PIM performance. the width of the signal conductor itself. These The unit of dBc is a power level (dB) in relation- resonances can interfere with the clarity of the ship to the carrier signal (c) power. If the mea- energy being transferred on the feedline to the sured PIM power is -110 dBm and the carrier power level is 40 dBm, subtraction is performed and the PIM value in units of dBc would -150 dBc. This is an extremely small number and in decimal form the -150 dBc is equivalent to If the energy is not cleanly 0.000000000000150. transitioned to the radiating ele- Some of the problems with measuring a cir- cuit for PIM performance include an extremely ments, less energy can be transmit- low power level and finding equipment accu- “ rate enough to measure it. Additionally, when ted or the reception of the energy trying to evaluate circuit performance, these is altered. Multilayer antenna PCBs extremely low power numbers are sensitive have a buried feedline and are often to many variables which can influence the re- sults. PIM testing is very difficult to do properly, a stripline structure. when we consider all the possible variables. At Rogers, we have been performing PIM testing on antenna-grade high-frequency circuit mate- rials for about 15 years and have enabled us to radiating elements. If the energy” is not cleanly formulate materials with consistently good PIM transitioned to the radiating elements, less en- performance. As with any application that has ergy can be transmitted or the reception of the special considerations, the PCB designer should energy is altered. Multilayer antenna PCBs have consult their material supplier when consider- a buried feedline and are often a stripline struc- ing which circuit materials to use for PIM sensi- ture. This type of feedline offers the benefit of tive applications. PCBDESIGN energy transitioning cleanly in the circuit and then transitioning to the radiating elements on the outer layer of the PCB using plated through- hole vias. John Coonrod is the technical mar- Passive inter-modulation (PIM) interference keting manager at Rogers Corpora- can be problematic with some PCB-based an- tion. To contact Coonrod, click here. tennas. In the case of PCB-based antennas, PIM is a potential type of interference which affects antennas that are in close proximity to each other and are using different frequencies. Basi-
56 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 1.888.228.9440 | [email protected]
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All About Flex: Flex Circuit Specifications and to others it’s simply a hurdle to overcome. And for Commercial and Military Applications for others, it is something to ignore altogether. Applications across the various markets for printed circuit boards can have significantly different speci- NASA Small Satellites Set to Take fications and performance requirements. Circuits a Fresh Look at Earth for toys and games logically have lower perfor- Beginning this month, NASA is launching a suite mance requirements than those used in medical of six next-generation, Earth-observing small satel- devices. IPC-6013 is an industry-driven specifica- lite missions to demonstrate innovative new ap- tion that defines the performance requirements proaches for studying our changing planet. and acceptance features for flexible printed circuit boards. U.S. Circuit Goes Green with Solar and LED Installation The Sum of All Parts: U.S. Circuit has just completed a $1 million in- Three Keys to Successful Leadership stallation of a 251 kWh solar system covering It is often easy to lose sight of, particularly in the their entire parking lot. This system makes U.S. manufacturing sector, your most valuable resource: Circuit one of a kind within the U.S. PCB fabrica- people. You can’t take purchase orders, operate tion industry. equipment and develop new strategies all on your own. With so much focus being driven toward NASA Aircraft Arrival Technology quality, margins and customer satisfaction, upper Gets Big Test in 2017 management develops a tendency to forget what Commercial airline pilots who as children played keeps all those things in the positive. “Follow the Leader” will have no problem with a new air traffic control innovation NASA and its The Sun to Power the Starliner partners are working on that also will make pas- Boeing will use solar energy to power the com- sengers happier. pany’s CST-100 Starliner for crew missions to and from the International Space Station as part of NA- IPC’s President on IPC EDGE: SA’s Commercial Crew Program. The sun’s energy Cutting Edge and Education offers a reliable and efficient power source for the Chatting with IPC President John Mitchell is always Starliner just as it does for the space station and a good time—he never fails to be upbeat and full satellites. of ideas, and his eagerness to fill us in on what’s happening with IPC was evident during our recent Kitron Receives Contract from interview at the IPC Fall Committee Meetings, co- Northrop Grumman located with SMTAI in late September. Kitron has been selected by Northrop Grumman Corp. as an international source for manufacturing Millennials in Manufacturing: of a sub-assembly for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. A Long-term Career Prospect The next millennial in this series is Alex Johnson, It’s Only Common Sense: an associate engineer at Saline Lectronics, who has ITAR—The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, been with the company for over two years. Even and the Very Ugly though Alex received a lot of negative information Has there ever been a more nebulous qualification about manufacturing throughout his lifetime, his than ITAR? It’s one of those topics that everyone has work experience in engineering has directly chal- an opinion about, but no one really understands. lenged those preconceived notions. To some of us it’s a game with ever-changing rules,
58 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 Don’t Let Your Temperatures Rise
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“Sparks” to the Rescue in RF Design
by Tim Haag INTERCEPT TECHNOLOGY Do you ever watch old military TV shows or someone halfway around the world. But in movies, specifically those featuring naval vessels those days, it took the powerful resources of a such as battleships, destroyers, or submarines? ship or submarine to power those early radios, Well, I do, and I’m betting that I’m not alone. and the guy with the know-how to make it all In a lot of these old shows, the captain of work was good-ol’ Sparks. the ship refers to the radioman as “Sparks.” This In today’s world of PCB design, we are also tasty little sobriquet dates back to the early days dealing with radio, specifically radio frequen- of radio when radiomen were traditionally nick- cies that we classify as RF design. And just as named “Sparky” or “Sparks” due to their early with the early days of radio where Sparks the use of spark-gap transmitters. In those old TV radio specialist was in demand to get the job shows and movies, the radioman, Sparks, was done, we now need RF specialists to help us get the go-to guy to get the job done. the job done. The specialists in demand today It probably wouldn’t occur to some younger are circuit board designers like you who work- people that there used to be a time where we ing together with electrical engineers to create couldn’t just pick up our cell phone and call the intricate designs required for RF circuits.
60 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
“SPARKS” TO THE RESCUE IN RF DESIGN
You are Sparks, the go-to specialist who will Another important routing enhancement is take care of business. But this isn’t standard PCB the ability to copy sections of routing. This will design; this is RF design with different, unusual give the designer the ability to reuse copied sec- design requirements that require specific design tions of routing, or export routing to another tool resources to complete the design. So, let’s design. Different options here allow copying to take a look at some of the common require- other layers, copying specific portions of rout- ments of RF design, and what specific design ing, setting anchor points for the copied routing software enhancements are needed to help PCB to paste to, etc. The ability to copy routing is a designers to better accomplish their task. pretty standard function for PCB design tools, One of the first things that will help the but in RF design there can be an even heavier PCB designer in the RF world is the ability to reliance on these capabilities. manually modify their components on the fly Area fills will also have enhanced function- as needed. Often the quickest way to get the ality, and one of those is the ability to create an desired shape in an RF component is to simply area fill as if it were a routed trace. This is very do a manual change to the part, and RF specific useful for RF designers so that instead of manu- design tools offer the designer this flexibility. ally digitizing multiple vertices of a complex Changes in a pin shape, moving a pin, or add- area fill, they can instead route in their area fill ing fill should be able to easily be done at the as if they were routing in a very fat trace. Other component level. area fill enhancements will include the ability RF specific design tools will also feature to change the parameters of the fill to specify many routing enhancements. Among those cross-hatching and outline widths. Also, there is the ability to add via fencing automatically. will be specific control over pins in the fill to It is very helpful for the designer to be able to specify pad sizes, clearances, and thermal di- specify an area either by selecting a pre-existing mensions for all pads or just specific pads and/ object to use as a fence template or by manu- or specific layers. And it is also helpful to be able ally drawing in the fence shape that the design to create fills within component shapes that tool will then fill in with vias. These via fill algo- can then be replicated for each placed instance rithms will usually include the ability to specify of that component. the via part to be used, the net, the spacing and One enhancement that we’ve found really how many rows of vias are required. useful in the RF design realm is the ability for de- signers to manually draw in primitive graphical shapes, and then convert those shapes to intelligent net ob- jects. This gives the designer the ability to draw in either primitive paths or poly- gons, or complex polygonal shapes such as arcs, circles and rectangles—and then convert those primitives to intelligent traces and area fills that carry net informa- tion. This eliminates the need for a designer to spend lots of time trying to create a uniquely specified area fill shape when instead they can create their shape out of the standard drawing tools
62 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 “SPARKS” TO THE RESCUE IN RF DESIGN
within the layout application, and then convert it to an area fill. RF designs incorporate a variety of differ- ent design elements than what the average PCB designer is used to seeing. For instance, certain sections of routing are actually components in the schematic. They are referred to as routed components, and the PCB design tools that are enhanced for RF design will have the ability to route a parametric component. The designer will start routing the parametric component, and the design tools will add virtual pins to each end of each segment allowing for those lumped components to be represented in the schematic. The design tools will also assign and store for each lumped component the model type for ex- ponent generator can create the RF component ternal RF simulation tools. on the fly. With a parametric component gen- This brings us to one of the most important erator, the shape and parameters of the compo- enhancements of RF-specific PCB design tools: nent can be altered by the designer in the layout the ability to connect to external RF simula- without having to manually alter and annotate tion tools with a bi-directional data transfer. In a regular static component. this way, the external simulation tools can send For instance, the parametric generator can their designs over to the PCB design tools for change the size, trace width, and ring count incorporation into the design, and the design of a spiral inductor producing the desired part tools can send over their data for simulation. that now only needs to be placed and routed. The bi-directional work flow between the two Since the parametric generator creates RF com- tools will allow the designer to easily simulate ponents with reference designators, the design and then incorporate those simulation changes can be easily annotated back and forth with the back into the main design. This is a much more schematic and will also be in synch with exter- efficient design flow than what was available nal RF simulators. with older single-directional design flow tools RF design can bring some real challenges to that would force the designer to have to re-cre- the table, and as we’ve discussed, the unique ate the design changes manually once the simu- requirements of an RF design can be greatly lation was complete. helped with some of these RF design specific The last enhancement to talk about is the software enhancements. None of us will prob- ability to add RF specific components dynami- ably ever need to connect the admiral with the cally to the design. Older design flows would joint chiefs in Washington DC to avert an in- require the manual creation of a specific RF ternational conflict like Sparks did on the late, component shape on the layout side as well late show. But hopefully some of what we’ve as the addition of a corresponding symbol in covered here can help you and the rest of your the schematic. Once annotated, the user would design team to be successful in your efforts and then go through a process of many manual ed- to become those go-to RF design specialists that its and annotations in order to get the correct everyone depends on. Aye, aye, sir! PCBDESIGN size and shape of that component finalized in the layout. With the ability to automatically generate Tim Haag is manager of customer RF components parametrically, however, the support and training at Intercept designer need only get the component attri- Technology. butes forward-annotated from the schematic into the layout, and then the parametric com-
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 63 SENSIBLE DESIGN
Understanding the Practicalities of Resin Application and Curing
by Alistair Little ELECTROLUBE Over the past few months, I’ve covered quite For example, part B of conventional two- a bit of ground regarding the choice of encapsu- part polyurethane resin formulations (the iso- lation and potting resins and the problems you cyanate) reacts strongly with moisture in the are likely to encounter when using them. I hope air, so should the packaging have been inadver- these Sensible Design columns have provided tently opened or compromised in any way and plenty of food for thought as well as giving you air has entered it, then a foam layer can form a basic understanding of the principal resin ma- on top of the isocyanate and carbon dioxide terials, their benefits and limitations. gas will be released, pressurising the container. This month, I’m going to focus on the practi- This provides evidence of a despoiled product, cal aspects of applying and curing resins—what which should not be used and instead, be dis- you should look out for in terms of material posed of responsibly. condition and the environment in which you If you purchase your resins and hardeners are mixing and applying the resin, deciding on in bulk quantities and use just a fraction of the which mixing and application techniques are contents for each production run, then repeat- appropriate to your production circumstances, ed opening and closing of the containers will and paying due attention to achieving a satis- allow moist air to enter the air space above the factory cure. liquids, with water being absorbed into the ma- It is important to check the state of your terials as a result. Containers should be opened material stocks before you proceed to use them. and closed as quickly as possible, or given a Just as you might give a cursory glance to the quick flush with dry nitrogen before closing to “use-by” date of packaged food in your refriger- help prevent these problems. ator, before you even consider mixing together If this is not a practical proposition, a better part A (the resin) and B (the hardener), always solution might be to purchase the material in check that these materials are in date and that, smaller container sizes, if your supplier stocks visually at least, their condition is good. them (we supply resins in quantities ranging
64 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
UNDERSTANDING THE PRACTICALITIES OF RESIN APPLICATION AND CURING
from 5kg bulk cans to 250g packs). Generally, however, some will require much higher tem- unless you intend to use the resin and hardener peratures to cure successfully, while others may in a single run, precautions like those outlined benefit from a post cure—applying an elevated above should be taken to ensure that a dry at- temperature to the encapsulation or potting mosphere is maintained within the containers area after it has achieved a partial cure. and that they are well sealed between runs/us- The curing process for epoxy resins is gener- age, otherwise you are going to suffer an awful ally slow, though the manufacturer can obtain a lot of waste product! range of different cure speeds and cured proper- ties by altering the hardener chemistry. However, beware that for epoxy resins, a fast cure can also mean a very exothermic reaction. Depending upon the size of the unit being potted and the Do you mix manually or amount of resin used, it might require some cool- make use of a special mixing ing to control the resultant exotherm. In the case of polyurethane systems, which have a lower exo- machine? therm during cure, even for fast cure systems, it’s “ the humidity you must consider, as environments with high humidity might cause the formation of bubbles and craters on the surface of the resin. And then ”we come to the all-important mix- After curing, and particularly for those units ing stage: Do you mix manually or make use that have been heated to cure the resin, a pe- of a special mixing machine? Manual mixing is riod of carefully controlled cooling may be nec- perfectly adequate for small-volume/short pro- essary to minimise the development of stress duction runs or when developing prototypes. points between the unit, the resin and the com- For these smaller jobs, the best approach is to ponents. Curing is a process affected by many use flexible plastic resin packs that provide mea- variables and consequently it can be very diffi- sured quantities of resin and hardener in sepa- cult to predict the outcomes with any accuracy. rated compartments of the pouch. When you For example, the temperature at which a resin are ready to use the pack, you simply remove is cured will affect not only its cure speed, but the separating clip and ‘massage’ the pouch to also the quality of the end-result, so it’s as well mix the components thoroughly together. to carry out some trials before committing to a For larger volumes and/or longer runs, man- specific cure rate and/or cure temperature. ual mixing could introduce variations in the Moreover, it is always advisable to check the mixed volumes of resin and hardener, which product’s technical data sheet to obtain the rec- will lead to variations in cure times as well as ommended guidelines for curing; should these compromising the quality of the cured product. not meet with your requirements or you foresee In this case, machine mixing is the better alter- any conflicts between the curing process and native as the mix ratio is set within tight toler- your production procedures, be sure to contact ances and maintained throughout the run. your supplier’s technical support team for fur- Again, when running two-part polyurethane ther advice. Remember, they have a wealth of resins through mixing and dispensing machines, experience at their disposal and most technical it will be necessary to protect both components support teams that I have had any dealings with from moisture, either by fitting desiccant traps will relish a challenge! PCBDESIGN to the product holding tanks or by flushing the tanks continuously with dry nitrogen. Resin systems—be they epoxy, urethane or Alistair Little is technical director silicone—differ with regard to the curing condi- for Electrolube’s Resins Division. tions they require to obtain an optimum cure. Generally, most resins will cure at room tem- perature (20–25°C) over a period of 24 hours;
66 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016
TOP TEN Recent Highlights from PCBDesign007
Siemens to Acquire DownStream Technologies: 1 Mentor Graphics for $4.5B 3 Building the Interface Between Designers and Fabricators Siemens and Mentor Graphics have en- DownStream Technologies tered into a merger founder Rick Almeida speaks agreement under with Editor Pete Starkey at which Siemens will the recent electronica show acquire Mentor for in Munich, Germany. He $37.25 per share in discusses DownStream’s ef- cash, which repre- forts to build an interface sents an enterprise value of $4.5 billion. Mentor between PCB designers and shareholder Elliott Management has committed to fabricators. support the transaction.
CAT’s David Wolf on Barry Hurley, PCB Designer 4 Via Reliability Analysis 2 and Porch Dawg Guitarist, Dies at 57 Conductor Analysis Technologies has been Barry Hurley, a longtime analyzing test panels and PCB designer, instruc- coupon designs for over tor, and guitarist with 20 years. In this e-mail the Porch Dawgs, passed interview, Vice President away in Bonham, Texas of Technical Marketing on November 12. He was David Wolf discusses 57. Barry was a great de- some of the trends he’s signer and a serious gui- seeing in via structures, tar player and collector. and the common reli- We’ll miss him. ability and quality issues related to vias.
68 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 Milwaukee Electronics Merges Leo Lambert Discusses 5 with San Diego PCB 8 EPTAC’s Evolving Mission
“San Diego PCB Inc. One of the biggest problems is a best-in-class en- a manager faces is training— gineering PCB layout getting employees trained, design service. We see and keeping them current on it as a great fit for our constantly changing technol- engineering-driven focus in the electronics manu- ogies. I asked Leo Lambert, VP facturing services (EMS) market and we have cho- and CTO of EPTAC, what his sen to refer to this transaction as a merger to bet- thoughts were on the subject ter reflect the collaborative environment it is creat- of leadership, and more specifically, what strate- ing,” said P. Michael Stoehr, Milwaukee Electronics gies EPTAC embraces with regard to training— president and CEO. both initial and ongoing.
Beyond Design: Altium Releases New Version of 6 Rock Steady Design 9 PCB Design Software Committed to Passionate Design How do we ensure that our high-speed digital design per- After experienc- forms to expectations, is stable ing record user given all possible diverse envi- growth in the ronments, and is reliable over past year, Altium the product’s projected life has launched cycle? One word: Impedance! the latest version of their leading PCB design soft- For the perfect transfer of ener- ware with Altium Designer 17. This release further gy and to benefit from the highest possible band- embodies Altium’s commitment to passionate de- width, the impedance of the driver must match sign by significantly reducing the time spent on the impedance of the transmission line and be non-design related tasks. constant along its entire length. What’s the Difference Between IBR Optimizes Incoming J a Manager and a True Leader? 7 Customer Data Handling using Ucamco’s Integr8tor Why would I want to work for you? The role of the IBR Leiterplantten has opti- manager is complex; it mized their data handling by means balancing business implementing Ucamco’s Inte- needs with creative oppor- gr8tor. Integr8tor analyses all tunity and flexibility, build- incoming customer files for ing trust and providing in- obvious errors, bottlenecks spiration with a team. It is and manufacturability, com- the manager who is the immediate point of con- ing up with a complete report of all the specifi- tact, and the one person who holds the key to job cations within a few minutes, without any input satisfaction. How can today’s manager maintain from the user. an effective and motivated team? PCBDesign007.com for the latest circuit design news and information—anywhere, anytime.
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 69 CALENDAR Events For IPC Calendar of Events, IPC APEX EXPO 2017 Conference click here. and Exhibition February 14−15, 2017 San Diego, California, USA For the SMTA Calendar of Events, click here. China International PCB & Assembly Show (CPCA) March 7−9, 2017 For a complete listing, check out Shanghai, China The PCB Design Magazine’s event calendar. 14th Electronic Circuits World Convention April 25−27, 2017 Goyang City, South Korea 46th NEPCON JAPAN January 18−20, 2017 KPCA Show 2017 Tokyo Big Sight, Japan April 25−27, 2017 Goyang City, South Korea DesignCon 2017 January 31–February 2, 2016 Thailand PCB Expo 2017 Santa Clara, California, USA May 11–13, 2017 Bangkok, Thailand MD&M West February 7–9, 2017 JPCA Show 2017 Anaheim, California, USA June 7–9, 2017 Tokyo, Japan
70 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2016 PUBLISHER: BARRY MATTIES MAGAZINE PRODUCTION CREW: PRODUCTION MANAGER: MIKE RADOGNA SALES MANAGER: BARB HOCKADAY (916) 608-0660; MAGAZINE LAYOUT: RON MEOGROSSI MARKETING SERVICES: TOBEY MARSICOVETERE AD DESIGN: SHELLY STEIN, MIKE RADOGNA, (916) 266-9160; [email protected] TOBEY MARSICOVETERE EDITORIAL: INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY: BRYSON MATTIES MANAGING EDITOR: ANDY SHAUGHNESSY (404) 806-0508; COVER: SHELLY STEIN
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The PCB Design Magazine® is published by BR Publishing, Inc., PO Box 50, Seaside, OR 97138 ©2016 BR Publishing, Inc. does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material contained within this publication, regardless of whether such errors or omissions are caused accidentally, from negligence or any other cause. December 2016, Volume 5, Number 12 • The PCB Design Magazine© is published monthly by BR Publishing, Inc.
ADVERTISER INDEX Accurate Circuit Engineering...... 11 IPC...... 25
American Standard Circuits...... 53 Isola...... 5
Candor Industries...... 21 Mentor Graphics...... 23
Coast to Coast Circuits, Inc...... 27 Miraco...... 45
Dibble Leaders...... 43 Oak Mitsui...... 19
Downstream Technologies.... 37, 55 The PCB List...... 2, 67
Eagle Electronics...... 17 Precision Technologies...... 57
Electrolube...... 61 Prototron Circuits...... 41
EMA Design Automation...... 13 Rogers Corporation...... 59
Geek-a-Palooza...... 48, 49 SiSoft...... 9 General Circuits...... 65 Sunstone Circuits...... 7
I-Connect007...... 72 US Circuit...... 3
In-Circuit Design Pty Ltd...... 51 Ventec International Group...... 31
Intercept...... 33
December 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 71