PCB West 2026 Opens Free Technical Sessions: Signal Integrity, AI, VIPPO, and the Industry's First Designer Career Day

The Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) has announced the full lineup of free technical sessions for PCB West 2026, scheduled for September 30 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California. In a press release dated August 27 from Peachtree City, Georgia, the industry organization confirmed that attendees can access 11 free presentations and a keynote address as part of the conference’s “Free Wednesday” program, which this year will also include the inaugural Career Day for students and recent graduates entering the PCB design profession.

PCB West 2026 runs from September 29 through October 2, with the exhibition floor open on September 30. Engineers who register before September 28 receive complimentary admission to the exhibition and all free sessions. Day-of registration is available for $25. For hardware engineers making critical decisions about board fabrication, stackup design, and component sourcing, this year’s free program covers an unusually broad range of topics with direct implications for manufacturing outcomes.

Signal Integrity and Copper Pour Strategy

Rick Hartley, one of the most recognized voices in PCB signal integrity education, will present “Copper Pours on PCB Signal Layers,” a session that addresses one of the most debated and misunderstood aspects of high-speed PCB design. Copper pours on signal layers can either improve or degrade signal integrity depending on how they are implemented, and the consequences flow directly into manufacturing. Poorly specified copper pours lead to impedance discontinuities that no amount of fabrication precision can correct. Engineers who attend this session will gain insight into how their copper pour decisions affect the controlled impedance stackup specifications they provide to their board manufacturer, ultimately determining whether the finished board meets performance requirements on the first build.

The Hidden Risk of Mixed VIPPO in BGA Designs

Al Block of DirectPCB will deliver what may be one of the most manufacturing-relevant sessions of the day: “The Hidden Failure Mode Using Mixed VIPPO in BGA Structures.” Via-in-pad plated over (VIPPO) technology is essential for modern BGA packaging, but mixing VIPPO approaches within a single BGA footprint introduces reliability risks that many designers overlook during layout. This session speaks directly to the kind of HDI manufacturing challenge that AtlasPCB’s engineering review team encounters regularly. Understanding these failure modes before finalizing a design can prevent costly board respins and reliability issues in the field. Engineers working with fine-pitch BGAs should also review current best practices for BGA pad design and via-in-pad solder voiding prevention to ensure their designs are production-ready before submitting for fabrication.

Keynote: Eliminating the Respin Through Better Design Practices

The day’s keynote address comes from AJ Cooper, CEO of Itera, who will present “It’s Time to Kill the Respin.” The title captures a challenge that every hardware team knows well: the expensive, schedule-destroying cycle of design revisions caused by issues that could have been caught earlier. Cooper’s perspective aligns with the growing industry emphasis on design-for-manufacturing principles. Every respin represents not just additional engineering time but additional fabrication cost, material waste, and delayed time-to-market. Engineers who invest in thorough DFM checks before submitting their designs consistently see fewer respins, lower total project cost, and faster production ramps. This keynote promises to address the organizational and process-level changes needed to make first-pass success the norm rather than the exception.

Market Outlook and Supply Chain Intelligence

Dr. Hayao Nakahara, widely regarded as one of the foremost analysts of the global PCB market, will present “The PCB Market Outlook.” For engineers and procurement teams making decisions about board sourcing, understanding where the market is heading is not academic. Lead times, material availability, and regional capacity shifts all affect when and how boards can be manufactured. This session offers the kind of strategic intelligence that helps engineering teams plan their fabrication partnerships and order timelines more effectively, particularly for complex builds requiring specialty materials or advanced HDI processes.

Bridging Prototyping and Volume Production

Ed Dodd, Vice President at Cofactr, will address a pain point familiar to any hardware team that has successfully prototyped a product only to hit sourcing walls at volume: “The Prototype Trap: Bridging the Sourcing Gap to Volume Production.” The transition from prototype to production is where component availability, alternate sourcing, and manufacturing yield intersect. Dodd’s presentation should offer practical frameworks for avoiding the common trap of designing around components that are available in sample quantities but constrained at scale. Cofactr is also sponsoring the post-event reception, offering additional networking time for attendees.

Afternoon Sessions: Thermal Design, AI in Manufacturing, and Emerging Technologies

The afternoon free sessions expand into areas with significant manufacturing implications. Presentations on high thermal PCB design with advanced dielectrics address a growing challenge as power densities increase across automotive, industrial, and computing applications. The choice of dielectric material and copper weight directly affects both thermal performance and fabrication complexity, making this session particularly relevant for engineers specifying materials for their next board order.

Sessions on AI in EMS new product introduction (NPI) and cutting-edge PCB technologies round out the technical program, alongside a presentation on common fabrication design issues. Understanding these frequent mistakes from the fabricator’s perspective is one of the most practical ways to improve design quality before files ever leave the designer’s workstation.

Matt Leary of Newgrange Design will also present “Changing PCB Design Software: No Big Deal, Right?” a session that acknowledges the real-world challenges of EDA tool migration, a topic that affects design output formats and, consequently, how manufacturing data is communicated to fabrication partners.

Inaugural Career Day Program

For the first time, PCB West will host a dedicated Career Day as part of Free Wednesday, offering an all-day program for students and recent graduates entering PCB design. The initiative reflects the industry’s effort to address a growing talent gap as experienced designers retire and board complexity continues to increase.

Paid Conference Sessions

Beyond the free program, the broader PCB West 2026 conference from September 29 through October 2 includes paid sessions covering signal integrity analysis with Keysight, stackup design for rigid, flex, and rigid-flex constructions, and ultra-high-density interconnect (UHDI) technology.

As we covered in our earlier report on the PCB West 2026 assembly and signal integrity program, this year’s conference reflects a clear industry trend toward bridging the gap between design intent and manufacturing reality. The free sessions announced this week reinforce that theme, with nearly every presentation touching on topics that directly affect how boards are specified, sourced, and built.

Registration for PCB West 2026 free sessions and the exhibition is open through September 28 at the PCEA website. The conference takes place September 29 through October 2 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Source: PCEA press release, August 27, 2026 (pcea.net); additional reporting via emsnow.com and pcdandf.com.

Reviewed by AtlasPCB Engineering Team