Get Ready for 2024! Will You Be the Champion? 

Show the electronics manufacturing industry what you're capable of. 

Every year, thousands of printed board design engineers spend countless hours completing and perfecting their designs. IPC is inviting these designers to put their skills to the test and compete to become the IPC Design Champion of 2024!

Expand the sections below to learn more. 

Virtual Heat

The Virtual Heat consists of a full board buildup, starting with a component BOM, schematic, and use-case brief. Competitors will be responsible for completing the board and exporting a documentation package via Gerber or IPC-2581. Competitors can use their own preferred tools.

This year, we have placed emphasis on making the design easier to complete in the time allotted. The preliminary designs should take no longer than 10-12 hours for the average designer to complete.

Competitors have 25 days to complete their design and are judged on their implementation of design rules and layout per IPC standards as well as general implementation of DFX principles.

Finals Heat at APEX EXPO 2024

Three finalists will be invited to IPC APEX EXPO 2024 for an in-person layout showdown`! 

 Can you route the best board and take home the prize? 

Competitors will be provided complimentary short-term licenses of Altium Designer to use for the finals competition. 

Schedule of Events

These times are subject to change.

Registration Begins

12 December 2023

Registration Ends

15 January 2024

Preliminaries Begin

4:30PM US Central Time, 15 January 2024

Preliminaries End

9 February 2024

Extended! 10 February 2024

Finalists Announced

4 March 2024

Finals - IPC APEX EXPO 2024 in Anaheim, California

9 April 2024 

Celebrating Design Excellence in India

Every year, we invite the champion and runner-up from the IPC India Design Competition to compete in the finals heat in North America.

This year, we're proud to host Dinseh Govindarajalu, Lead - Turnkey with Sienna ECAD and Ajeesh Francis, Senior PCB Engineer with Tessolve Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd. 


Headshot - Dinesh

Dinseh Govindarajalu - Sienna ECAD - Winner, IPC India PCB Design Competition 2023

Dinesh has been working as a PCB designer since May 2006 and his experience ranges from single-side boards to 14-layer boards that involve highspeed boards with BGA, mixed circuits, high power, and RF. He is an IPC CID certified designer, and other than PCBs, is interested in watching movies, cycling, and playing badminton. 

Ajeesh Francis - Tessolve Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd.  - Runner-Up, IPC India PCB Design Competition 2023

Ajeesh completed his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering at Park college of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore.

In 2014, armed with a solid educational foundation, he took my first step into the professional world as a PCB Design Engineer. He has designed several complex system boards for digital, mixed, power management and RF applications. Having collaborated with top semiconductor companies, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the architecture of cutting-edge technologies.