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The Route

The masses are atwitter over the recently announced Renesas acquisition of Altium, and for good reason. The $5.9 billion price tag is some real coin.

What’s less clear to almost everyone outside the two companies, however, is the underlying strategy and how the merged entity will look going forward.

In announcing the acquisition, Renesas chief executive Hidetoshi Shibata called it “an important first step into our long-term future.” But what is that future?

Obviously, Renesas is not going to take Altium private, for exclusive use by its own customers. The two firms do have many overlapping markets: IoT, consumer, automotive, among others. Renesas also plays in higher-end areas such as high-performance computing that Altium has not to our knowledge penetrated. If OEMs want one-stop shopping for a systems program, a combined Renesas-Altium starts to make some sense. But the latter lacks the chip package tool to complete the proverbial – and literal – circuit.

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If you have a child in Mrs. Dollas' eighth-grade class at the Rupert A. Nock Middle School in Newburyport, MA, odds are you are probably pretty steamed with me right now.

For those who aren't up to speed, here's why.

On a cold winter day in mid-January, I addressed her students about careers in electronics. About 20 teens gathered for the school's ongoing career exploration series (which as an aside, is a wonderful concept that all middle schools should adopt). I was invited to speak about my own career, but I quickly pivoted to the possibilities in tech that don't involve creating an app.

After asking for a show of hands from those who have been scolded by their folks for excessive video game playing – all of them – I then served them a counterargument: Play more!

My reason, I explained, is because video games – well, many of them – encourage students to use their imaginations. And while acknowledging their inherent addictiveness, I also believe they impart tremendous skills and subtle knowledge that will be useful to future generations of workers.

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It was gratifying to see the throngs return for Productronica in November. To the tune of 42,000 visitors, the crowds showed up for the granddaddy of shows in the Western world. (Nepcon Japan is roughly twice as big.)

And there was plenty to see. One of the improvements that jumped out was the increase in speeds, especially on the assembly line. Machine speeds are rising at remarkable rates, with placement machines hitting their fastest speeds ever, even while many of them add multifunctional heads for more flexible line setups.

Yamaha’s YRM20 placement machine allows nonstop cart and feeder changes. Fuji’s AIMEXR SMT placement machine, for NPI runs, relies on linear motors for its fastest speeds yet. So what if the semiconductor market is predicted to rise by double-digits this year? These machines can take the pressure.

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In November I was invited to join the “disruptors” of the industry – also known as Mark Goodwin and Gene Weiner – on a panel to discuss the derisking of the supply chain.

Against the backdrop of the biennial Productronica trade show, the largest of its kind for electronics manufacturing in the West, and hosted by my media colleague Trevor Galbraith, we attempted to delve into the issues at hand when it comes to ensuring supply chain resiliency.

As Goodwin, the chief operating officer of Ventec, correctly framed the situation, the vast majority of materials originate in Asia, particularly China, and while parts of the supply chain are being moved back to the West, a full-scale migration won’t happen in our lifetimes. Given that, what needs to happen at the margins to ensure at least a minimal degree of secure chains?

The role of government naturally came up, and it was suggested that legislators are driving reverse migration. I pushed back on that notion, opining instead that commercial businesses lead the way and governments are reacting both to the years-long industry impetus and the post-Covid realization that supply chains are not secure. (For more on that, see our interview with David Schild of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America in this issue.)

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As anyone who has visited Acapulco knows, it is picturesque, with the serene mountain scape overlooking the half-moon bay.

Pictures, as we also know, can be deceiving.

For the better part of the decade, the once-classic vacation spot has been overrun with drug gangs, and the former wave of tourists has diminished to a trickle. And that was before Hurricane Otis hit last month.

As 2023 draws near its end, we are reminded of how much uncertainty lies ahead. Whether man-made, like the regional conflicts in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific Rim; or natural disasters, such as those experienced in Mexico, Turkey and the US, we seem awash in challenges and obstacles.

And then there are the completely self-inflicted wounds.

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What role will artificial intelligence truly play in electronics design, and what will the impact be on hardware engineers?

Zuken took a step toward answering that question with its announcement at PCB West of a new AI-based tool for printed circuit place-and-route. Yet the first public mention of AIPR for CR-8000 – the actual rollout will come in the first quarter next year – poses not only a dramatic vision for a highly automated future of design but a host of new questions as well.

The new tool itself is an extension of Design Force, Zuken's layout, routing and verification tool within the CR-8000 platform. Its AI, explained Kyle Miller, Ph.D., who architected the engine, involves all three basic types of machine learning: supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement. AIPR stands for Autonomous Intelligent Place and Route, and like previously announced AI-based CAD tools, it starts with routing. The "Basic Brain" performs so-called smart routing by means of exposure to Zuken's database of PCB designs built in CR-8000. Over time, it mimics human routing, with channels organized in logical ways. Smart placement is next, at an undisclosed time.

According to Bob Potock, vice president of sales and marketing, Zuken will add IPC-2581 capability as part of the next-generation Dynamic Brain, allowing designs from other ECAD systems to be incorporated and learned.

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