By John Mitchell, IPC president and CEO

As a member-driven organization, IPC works diligently to help our member OEMs, EMS and PCB manufacturers and suppliers build electronics better. And we all know that you cannot build a great product without a great design.

To focus on the critical role design plays in the development of electronics, we created IPC Design to bring together printed board design professionals to connect with other designers, enjoy education and training opportunities, mentor and encourage the next generation of designer engineers, and above all, help advance the art and science of printed board design.   

Participating designers have contributed their time to the development of a PCB Design Desk Reference, a table-top guide to designing boards in accordance with IPC design standards, which will be available later this year.

Designers will take center stage at IPC APEX EXPO 2022, where we will hold the finals of the IPC Design Competition, , created to test the design aptitude of professional designers from around the world.  The virtual preliminary heat, held in November and December,  will consist of a full board build-up: starting with a schematic, some mechanical/packaging constraints, and a pre-defined component library, competitors will be required to complete a design task in accordance with relevant IPC standards, culminating in a standard-compliant documentation package and IPC-2581 file. Three finalists will be chosen from this round and invited to a live competition at APEX EXPO 2022. The in-person event will consist of a very low-complexity board (blinky-board or similar) with predefined stack up and component library, the best layout wins!

Also, at IPC APEX EXPO 2022, IPC Design will host a Day of DFX with panels covering topics such as designing for manufacturing, testability, assembly, and much more.

IPC provides educational opportunities in design, whether you or your team need an introductory course or advanced design knowledge. Designing for smaller, more complex, and more robust electronics devices require creative thinking and extensive theoretical and applied knowledge. To meet these challenges, IPC Design courses were developed to help designers across different sectors of the industry acquire and sharpen skills required to design and manufacture innovative products that ensure organizational profitability. Currently, IPC offers two introductory, two intermediate and five advanced design courses.

In addition to design courses, we offer the IPC Designer Certification program at IPC-licensed training centers worldwide. Both certifications, one basic and one advanced, provide objective evaluation of core competencies in PCB design providing instruction in how to transform an electrical circuit description into a PCB design that can be manufactured, assembled, and tested. 

IPC courses are taught by industry veterans who provide intensive training for learners to deliver effective and reliable design to customers. Information on IPC Design courses and certification can be found by visiting www.ipc.org/education/pcb-design-courses or www.ipc.org/ipc-designer-certification-program.