PCB Chat
Technology
About
PCB Chat - interviews with experts on electronics design and manufacturing, hosted by Mike Buetow
Episodes
- RM 189: Predict, Prevent, Produce: RoviSys' Bryan DeBois on Manufacturing's Al Future
What if your factory could predict failures before they happen, capture decades of human expertise, and make better decisions than ever before—without replacing the people who run it? Today’s guest sits right at the intersection of innovat…
- PCB Chat 155: Breadboard's Nemanja Jokanovic on Automating BOM Management
Nemanja Jokanovic is the executive leader of Breadboard, an AI-powered platform that he believes will revolutionize BOM management. In this interview with Andy Shaughnessy, Jokanovic, an Octopart alum, discusses the many sourcing challenge…
- RM 187: An Academic Look at Al in Electronics Manufacturing: Where It Works, Fails, and Why It Matters
Artificial intelligence is being promoted as the next revolution in electronics manufacturing, but what happens when the people evaluating it aren’t traditional AI experts, aren’t software vendors, and aren’t selling anything? Today’s conv…
- PCB Chat 154: Wally Rhines on the Latest ECAD Market Data
Wally Rhines is the spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, part of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. He joined Andy Shaughnessy to share details from the latest ESD Alliance report on sales of computer-aided engineering tool…
- PCB Chat 153: Karen Burnham on Taking the Pain out of EMC
Karen Burnham feels your pain - the pain of EMC, that is. Karen is an EMC engineer, instructor, and founder of EMC United, a consulting company that aims to make EMC less painful for the rest of the PCB design engineering community. Karen…
- PCB Chat 152: Mike Buetow on the Cadence Acquisition of EMA
What does Cadence's acquisition of EMA Design Automation mean for the respective companies, and the market? Mike Buetow considers the issues related to the EDA giant's acquisition of its largest VAR.
- PCB Chat 151: Scott Bright of Cadstrom IO
Scott Bright is co-founder and COO of Cadstrom IO , a new company that is coming up with tools for resolving some of the engineering problems that designers and engineers are encountering daily. Bright has more than 35 years of technology…
- RM 185: How Accuracy & Force Compliance Contribute to Better Quality & Reliability, with Michael Sivigny
In electronics manufacturing, defects don’t usually announce themselves. They happen in milliseconds, far faster than human perception, and often long before anyone realizes a process has drifted out of control. By the time failures show u…
- PCB Chat 150: Wally Rhines on the Latest ECAD Market Data
Wally Rhines the spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, part of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. He joins Mike Buetow each quarter to share details from the latest ESD Alliance report on sales of computer-aided engineering…
- RM 184: Advances in Dispensing Automation and Thermal Management with PVA’s Jon Urquhart
Jon Urquhart is director of global applications engineering at Precision Valve and Automation — one of the world’s leading developers of dispensing, coating, and industrial motion-automation systems. Since joining PVA in 1993, Urquhart has…
- PCB Chat 149: Maggie Frachioni on the Evolution of a PCB Designer
Margaret (Maggie) Frachioni is a semiconductor hardware engineer at General Motors, where, armed with a bachelor’s in computer engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, she started out college as a software engineer in its auto…
- RM 183: A Reliability Matters Podcast Year-End Reflection
Since 2018, Reliability Matters has been building a knowledge vault, capturing the wisdom of industry experts for engineers everywhere. In this special year-end episode, we celebrate the journey, the growth, and the community that made it…
- RM 182: How to Work Effectively with your CM - with Daniel Stanphill & Sean Kincaid
Mike Konrad continues a dive into the world of contract manufacturing—a vital piece of the electronics ecosystem. Joining him are two industry leaders who know this space inside and out. First, we have Daniel Stanphill, SMT process enginee…
- RM 181: Working with Contract Manufacturers - with Raymond Novara
The next two episodes of Reliability Matters will be all about contract manufacturing, an area that can make or break the reliability and success of a product. Mike Konrad's guest on this episode is Raymond Novara, founder and owner of Eas…
- RM 180: Low Temp Soldering for a High-Reliability World
Note: This is the fourth of four episodes on the subject of soldering materials. Today, we're diving into a topic that's reshaping how we think about thermal management, energy efficiency, and long-term performance in electronics manufactu…
- PCB Chat 147: Matthias Wagner of FluxAI
Today’s guest is Matthias Wagne r, chief executive and cofounder of Flux. Flux is maker of a Agentic AI-based PCB design platform and programmable simulator that runs in a browser environment. Regular listeners may know we have spoken with…
- RM 179: Indium's Ross Berntson
This is the third of four episodes on the subject of soldering materials. Today, we’re continuing our deep dive into the world of soldering materials, from advanced alloys and flux chemistries to global manufacturing strategy and materials…
- PCB Chat 146: The Latest EDA Market Results
Wally Rhines joins Mike Buetow each quarter to share details from the latest ESD Alliance report on sales of PCB design software, computer-aided engineering tools, semiconductor tools, related IP and services, and employment. This chat, we…
- RM 176: The Chemistry of Reliability: Choosing the Right Solder and Flux
In this episode, Mike Konrad is joined by Chris Ward, founder and managing director of Solderking Assembly Materials, a UK-based manufacturer of solders and chemical consumables for electronic, electrical, and engineered assemblies. Ward b…
- PCB Chat 147 with Margaret Upshur of Mobius Materials
Margaret Upshur is CEO of Mobius Materials , a global online marketplace for excess electronic components. Before founding Mobius, she was senior director of operations at Particle, which supplies application infrastructure for deploying s…
- RM 177: Humidity: Small Cause, Huge Reliability Risk with Viktoria Rawinski
Chapters: 00:00 Introduction & Episode Overview 02:12 Meet Victoria Rawinsky: Expertise & Industry Impact 05:09 Social Media Challenge & Making Science Accessible 09:09 Humidity in Electronics: The Science & Risks 15:12 Types of Humidity &…
- PCB Chat 146 - Stephen Chavez on PCB Design Trends and Needs
Stephen Chavez is principal technical product marketing manager with Siemens, but he’s best known for his three decades as a printed circuit designer and instructor. He’s a regular contributor to various industry publications and host of t…
- RM 175 - SMT War Stories with Phil Zarrow and Jim Hall
Mike Konrad is joined by two of the most respected names in the electronics manufacturing industry, Phil Zarrow and Jim Hall. Together, they bring decades of hands-on experience and unparalleled insight into the challenges and solutions wi…
- RM 173: Reliability as a Service: How ChargerHelp! Keeps EV Charging Running
As the electric vehicle market accelerates, the reliability of the charging infrastructure becomes increasingly vital. Chargers that are down or malfunctioning can hinder adoption and erode consumer confidence. But who ensures these charge…
- PCB Chat 145: David Schild on Congress Priorities
On this episode of PCB Chat, David Schild of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America and Mike Buetow discuss the current legislative environment for supporting the PCB industry. We discuss the organization's latest annual meeting,…
- PCB Chat 144: The Latest PCB Design Software Market Trends
Wally Rhines, spokesperson for the ESD Alliance , joins Mike Buetow to discuss the first quarter electronic design automation market results . The good news: sales of PCB/MCM design software were up 5.5% to $399.8 million for the quarter,…
- RM 172: Steering ERP Projects Back on Track with Chintan Sutaria
Today we're diving into a topic that keeps many executives awake at night—ERP implementations. More specifically, why so many of them fail and, perhaps more importantly, how to fix them midstream before they derail your operations. Joining…
- Cofactr on Supply Chain Execution
Cofactr is a supply chain execution platform that includes source-to-pay and 3PL solutions for electronics hardware developers. Live from the show floor at PCB East in May, cofounder Phil Gulley and VP of marketing Libby Melton join Matt L…
- RM 171: Pick & Place Machine Selection and Optimization
Today we're turning our attention to a cornerstone of modern electronics manufacturing: pick-and-place technology. Joining Mike Konrad is Tim Kang, CEO of Hanwha Semitech Americas. With nearly two decades of experience in the electronics m…
- RM 169: On the Road - Soldering
On this episode of the Reliability Matters podcast, Mike Konrad left his usual studio for the IPC Apex Expo trade show. He interviews two subject matter experts on topics related to electronics assembly. The guests are: Gerald Gardner, glo…
- RM 168: On the Road - Electronics Assembly
Mike Konrad interviews three subject matter experts on various topics related to electronics assembly. The guests are: Greg Beck, director of sales at Absolute EMS, a contract manufacturer. Brian Watson, cofounder of HyRel Technologies, a…
- Chris Banton of EMA Design Automation on Board Optimization
Chris Banton of EMA Design Automation joins Matt Leary, Geoffrey Hazelett and Mike Buetow to talk about how the EDA vendor's helps printed circuit board designers optimize their designs. Recorded live on the show floor at PCB East 2025 .
- PCB Chat 143: Frank Mullaney and Emma Hudson of iNEMI
For early 30 years, the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (INEMI), has been the go-to consortium for many leading OEMs companies and their suppliers to identify and develop next-generation technology, and then help deploy…
- Tom Britton and Nataliia Matsiuk on an AI Solution for PCB Manufacturing
Tom Britton and Nataliia Matsiuk join Geoffrey Hazelett of FreedomCAD, Matt Leary of Newgrange Design and Mike Buetow of PCEA to share work on a Department of Energy program that pair scientists with real-world industry problems. In partic…
- Robert Byrne of Allspice
Robert Bryne, director of marketing at Allspice.io , joins Geoffrey Hazelett of FreedomCAD, Matt Leary of Newgrange Design and Mike Buetow of PCEA to talk about the five-year-old company's GIT hardware platform that helps hardware and elec…
- RM 167: Meet the Press: A Conversation with PCEA President Mike Buetow
Today, we’re diving deep into the world of electronics manufacturing from a unique vantage point—that of the press. Mike Konrad's guest is someone who has spent decades at the forefront of reporting on the electronics manufacturing industr…
- PCB Chat 142: The Latest PCB Design Software Market Trends
Wally Rhines, spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, which is part of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, joins Mike Buetow to share the latest electronic design automation data. Rhines details highlights from the fourth quart…
- RM 166: Electronics: Down Memory Lane and a Vision for the Future
This episode is a little different in two ways. First, host Mike Konrad recorded it not in his studio but at the SMTA Pan Pacific Strategic Electronics Symposium, affectionately known as PanPac, in beautiful Maui, Hawaii. Each year, Mike r…
- PCB Chat 141: Integrated Library Management and Component Procurement
Supply chain management looms over everything we do, but it has been more pronounced than ever over the past five years as the Covid pandemic steered so much attention to how we procure and inventory parts. About a month ago, DigiKey, one…
- RM 163: Sebastian Schaal of Luminovo on Supply Chain Management
Today, we're tackling a topic that has become increasingly vital in recent years: supply chain management. With global supply chains recently under immense pressure from disruptions, shortages, and growing complexity, the need for smarter,…
- RM 162: Battery Selection and Safety Best Practices with Alex Norman
Today we’re diving into a critical yet sometimes overlooked component that powers so many of the devices we rely on: batteries. Batteries are the heartbeat of countless electronic products, from medical devices and electric vehicles to con…
- PCB Chat 140: Kenny McGee on Component Circularity
Today’s guest intersects two key areas for electronics manufacturers: circularity and inventory management. "The cost of a component isn't just the cost of a component. It's the cost to the planet." That's what Kenny McGee, chief executive…
- RM 161: AI-Based Inspection Technologies with Priyansha Bagaria
Today, we’re exploring a transformative topic: AI-based inspection technologies. Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how we detect, analyze, and address defects in the electronics assembly process, combining precision with unparalle…
- The Semiconductor/Packaging/PCB Technology Stack
This is Part 2 of a new podcast in which guest Geoffrey Leeds of Leeds AI joins Matt Leary ( Newgrange Design ), Geoffrey Hazelett ( FreedomCAD ) and Mike Buetow ( PCEA ) to discuss the semiconductor/packaging/PCB technology stack and what…
- The Electronics Supply Chain and How Companies Can Adapt
Supply chain issues are rearing their ugly heads -- again -- with the latest blow the decision by Nippon Denkai to close and liquidate its copper foil manufacturing plant in Georgia, the last such factory in the United States. In Part 1 of…
- RM 160: Opportunities and Challenges within the EV Industry
Today, we’re diving into one of the most transformative innovations of our time: electric vehicles and the vast infrastructure needed to support their growth. Joining host Mike Konrad is Brian O’Leary, global head of of e-Mobility & Infras…
- PCB Chat 139: PCB Design Software Market Analysis with Wally Rhines
Sales of software for printed circuit board and multichip module design rose to a record $450 million in the third quarter ended in October, extending a growth streak that has seen only three down quarters in the past nine years, the ESD A…
- PCB Chat 138: A Look at PCB Industry Legislation in 2025 with David Schild of the PCBAA
Questions about over how the new administration and Congress coming in January will approach government investment in capital projects, workforce development and other incentives to build back the domestic electronics supply chain. David S…
- RM 158: D-Code Podcast Interview
The hosts of the D-Code podcast are a dynamic trio of young professionals making waves in the electronics manufacturing industry. With experience rooted in contract manufacturing and stencil fabrication for electronics assemblies, they bri…
- RM 156: An Introduction to Flexible Circuits with Joseph Fjelstad
On today’s episode, we’re turning our focus to a pivotal innovation that has transformed design and manufacturing processes: flexible circuits. Flexible circuits have emerged as a game-changer in the manufacturing and design of electronic…