PCB Technology Leadership Award Winner: Murrelektronic

Congratulations to Murrelektronik in Germany and the design team of Matthias Haak and Simon De Serra for their winning design in this year’s Technology Leadership Awards. Using the PADS Product Creation Platform, their safety I/O module for industrial automation was runner-up in the Industrial Control, Instrumentation, and Medical category.

The design had significant challenges, including SI, fabrication, reliability, and cost. In particular, the judges noted the very dense placement of the board, with the power components distributed to facilitate better heat dissipation across the design. The use of a sequential stack-up with HDI further minimized the stress of thermal variations, thus improving board reliability. The mechanical restrictions of a fixed form factor also put an emphasis on thermal and EMC design and made integration and communication with MCAD critical.

Congratulations to Murrelektronik and all the engineers and designers involved!